Sonata in Triplicate
by PuppyLuver256
Summary: A darkness is approaching on the horizon. The newly appointed queen of Hyrule calls upon her allies to aid her in its prevention, though their attempt to push away the darkness may inadvertently draw it closer in more ways than one.
1. The Queen, the King, and the Rider

" _And just what is it that you seek to gain from this partnership?"_

He could feel the blade's pulsing energy from across the room, hear its humming in his mind. Weakly, he lifted his arm, his hand outstretched as if to take it for his own.

" _First of all, my freedom."_

With those words the blade flung itself from its haphazard placement on the floor, its hilt wedging itself into his palm. He felt a literal weight lifted from him as the magic chains holding him prisoner in the dingy cell dissolved into nothingness. As they vanished, he felt his own power returning to him. It was like warm soup sliding down his throat after a day out in the cold. Still, this wasn't quite the freedom he meant, though it was a step in the right direction.

" _And second...my birthright."_

The blade's energy pulsed with enough power to be felt through his arm, and a faint red aura became visible along its edge, growing stronger by the second.

" _Well then, what say we make our way out of this dump? Oh, but won't there be guards of some sort at the door? Our departure might get...messy."_

The blade's silky-smooth voice made it seem entirely gleeful about the likely possibility of bloodshed. Its new wielder grinned wide, his needle-like teeth glistening with the reflection of the blade's bright red aura.

" _That won't be an issue whatsoever._ "

* * *

"Liiiiiiiiiiiiiiink!"

Lori's call rang out as she ran through the streets of Fairhill Village, a few loose feathers from the Cuccos she had been helping with falling out of her hair. "Link, where aaaaaare you!" she called out again. She paused to catch her breath, letting out an indignant huff. "Where could that lazybones be?" she wondered aloud.

She thought of the most likely place for Link to be and took off at a light jog, having the smallest of hopes that he wouldn't actually be there. Sure enough, as she approached their home, she could see a familiar face doing a stretch, that tell-tale "I just woke up two minutes ago" stretch. Lori rolled her eyes and pushed the door open, not bothering to be quiet now that the last member of the family had awakened. "Link, get over here, you goober!" she called playfully. A shuffling sound could be heard from the back of the house, and soon enough a young man soon stepped out into the main room, still rubbing sleep out of his eyes.

"Link, I honestly can't believe we're related sometimes," Lori sighed, though there was a bit of humor in her tone. "You knew today's the day you're supposed to make a delivery to Hyrule Castle. It's gonna take half the day getting' there, Pop's worryin' like mad, and here you are havin' a kip! You've not even got your boots on!"

Link's eyes widened and he gasped, running back to his room and quickly coming back out in a sort of hopping manner as he tried putting his boots on while heading toward the door, the fairy-shaped pendant he always wore haphazardly thrown over his head and slowly sliding down to its proper place around his neck. He grabbed his sword off a hook near the door, just in case he ran into any trouble on the road, and was nearly out the door before Lori put a hand on his shoulder. "Be careful out there, okay, brother?" she said. Link nodded; he knew the roads to the castle town well enough by now, considering the amount of deliveries he'd made—that, and the non-delivery invites he had occasionally received from a regular client and friend. "Oh, and take this with you." Lori handed him a small box wrapped in a cloth. "Gran made you a lunch for the road. Figured you'd not get back to civilization until nightfall, so it's something to keep you going." Link took the box with a smile, then headed out the door and down to where their father's workshop was.

The smithy was located out of the way of Fairhill's homes, if only as a courtesy to prevent the smoke and the sound of tools on steel from irritating the others. As Link approached, he could see his father busying about, a look of concern etched in his aging features. Link waved at him, but he didn't seem to notice, so with no other option he cleared is throat and let out a short "Hey, Pop!"

Link's father glanced up, and his look of concern changed to a warm smile. "Well, it's about time you got here, son!" he said. Unlike his children and wife, the blacksmith Fergus was a large, heavy-set man, having the sort of physique one would expect a blacksmith to have. In fact, the only physical feature he seemed to pass onto his children were their bright blue eyes. "You all ready to head off?"

Link nodded enthusiastically. Truth be told, he always looked forward to making deliveries for his father. Fergus' work was praised throughout Hyrule and beyond as being of the highest quality, and as such he was often commissioned for work from all sorts of clients living in all sorts of places. Acting as his father's delivery boy gave Link a chance to travel more often than he might have otherwise, and he thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity.

Fergus handed Link a package wrapped in cloth from underneath his work bench, briefly undoing its wrappings to reveal the contents within. It was a rapier, beautiful and gleaming, but with a quiet sense of power underneath its adornments. "She's a right beaut, ain't she?" Fergus asked with a deep chuckle. "Shame it's not entirely a Fergus original, of course." Link looked up from the decorated blade, an eyebrow raised in confusion. "Yep, this is actually a replica. The original is meant for ceremonial purposes, but a certain favored client of yours wanted a combat-ready one that looked just like it. Can't say I quite understand the whims of royalty and their ornamentation of proper swords, but a job's a job and it's not like it's immoral to make a copy when the person in charge of the original is the one askin' for it." He wrapped the sword up once more, then gave Link a package wrapped in much more intricate material. "That there's the original, make sure it gets back safe. I've shod Epona for ya already, so you shouldn't have any—"

At that moment, a loud clunk sound was heard and the room began to fill with dark smoke almost immediately. "Oh, by the _gods!_ " Fergus shouted angrily. "It's wiggin' out again!" He grabbed a work rag from his bench and began fanning it as he approached the forge. "Yer ma's a genius with machines, but I'm startin' to think this self-stoking forge she built is more hassle than it's worth." He pulled on a few of the levers on the side of the forge until it stopped billowing smoke and making sounds. "Go on and get goin', then, you don't wanna be outside a town when night comes. I'll clean this up, maybe get Meredith to fix it properly if she ain't too busy..."

Link nodded, grateful that he wouldn't have to deal with the aftermath of one of his mother's machines again, and made his way out the door with both swords in hand. He half-jogged to the village stable, where he found his trusted steed Epona already fit for the journey with her saddle and reins, as well as brand new shoes applied to her hooves. He gently patted Epona's head before climbing onto her back, and the two of them set off.

* * *

Down the forest path they went at a slow yet steady trot, as Link did not want to set Epona on a gallop until they were into the much more open area that was Hyrule Field, for her safety if for no other reason. Even with the usual overgrowth that Faron Woods usually experienced, the path through to the rest of Hyrule was usually maintained well enough to make it an easier ride. The tops of the trees were clustered together enough to blot out some of the midday sun, however, and while Link wasn't too bothered by it, the lack of consistent sunlight always seemed to agitate Epona slightly.

A twig snapped in the distance. Link looked around in confusion, and Epona stopped in her tracks and let out a nervous snort, her ears flitted around to catch whatever had made that noise. He stroked her neck in reassurance, then lightly snapped the reins to encourage her to keep going. They were both on-edge now, Epona moreso than Link due to horses being somewhat skittish by nature, and every small rustle of leaves just added to the unease. Link had to remind himself he had made this journey countless times with nothing having gone wrong before, so it would be highly unlikely for anything to happen this time.

He heard a voice. It didn't say anything, but it sounded like a child giggling. Link knew that sound, or at least he had an idea of what it was, but to Epona it was something strange and frightening. More rustling could be heard along the path, and while Link tried to persuade Epona to keep going, she was having none of it. Suddenly, a figure appeared in front of them out of nowhere, causing Epona to rear back and neigh loudly in fear. Link managed to hold on and eased her panic, then he got a good look at the figure that had made their sudden appearance.

"Heyo, Linky-boy!" the child-like entity before them exclaimed. "How's my favorite human doing?"

Link gave the child a look of annoyance. Of course it would be Skull Kid. He was probably the only resident of Fairhill who knew about Skull Kid, or at least the only one who was an adult and hadn't yet dismissed stories of weird kids in the woods as childish flights of fancy. While he couldn't bring himself to be angry with him for too long due to very personal reasons, he had a job to do, and a strange entity living in the forest harassing his horse just would not do.

"Aw, don't gimme that face!" Skull Kid said. "I just wanted to see you, buddy! You haven't come to visit in so long, I was worried something bad had happened." He pulled his lantern staff closer to him and made a face of mock sadness. "Or that you'd...forgotten about little old me?"

Link rolled his eyes, though he couldn't help but crack a tiny smile. He could never forget about Skull Kid, not after what he'd done for him all those years ago. He'd just been busy the past few months, and hadn't had the time to go on random treks through the deepest part of the nearby forest.

"Grown-up stuff, huh?" Skull Kid asked, seemingly understanding. "Adulting sure does take a lot out of you humans." He grinned that impossibly wide grin that was practically his trademark. "Glad I don't have to deal with that!"

Link smiled and motioned in front of him, as if to say that he really should be going. "Oh yeah, your grown-up stuff," Skull Kid chuckled. "Well, Linky-doodle, I'll get out of your way. You really should make some time to come hand out soon." His face then turned a bit solemn. "Listen, bud, you be careful, all right? I smell trouble on the wind, and I've got the weird feeling that you're gonna get mixed up in it. And I'm not talking about that Wolfos I dealt with for ya up ahead." He winked, and without another word he vanished.

The road was now clear, and Epona was no longer panicking. With a click of the reins, they set off once more, ready to once again make progress in their journey to Hyrule Castle.

* * *

The vast grassy plain that was Hyrule Field was a nice contrast to the dimly-lit forest. There was plenty of space for Epona to really get going, and so Link let her run as fast as she liked. This was the part of the journey that Link enjoyed the best, letting his mind wander as the wind blew through his hair, the repetitive sound of Epona's hoofbeats easing any cares he might have that day. Of course, there was the occasional monster or bandit trying to start something, but that's what he had his sword for. Still, it wasn't a common enough occurrence for him to worry too much about the possibility.

Even as the sun was dropping in the sky and he let his mind wander, Link couldn't help but notice something in the distance. It was vaguely in the shape of a human on horseback, too far off to make any features, but the colors looked to be mostly dark in tone. He had a feeling he knew exactly what that shape was, especially because it seemed to be headed towards the castle from the west. He encouraged Epona to head in the direction of the dark-clad person and their horse. As they got closer, he saw a detail even in the dimming light of sunset that confirmed he knew who this person was: bright red hair flowing in the breeze. Link let out a yell to get his attention, waving excitedly as he noticed him and turned his horse to approach him instead.

"Hey, it's the delivery boy!" Ganondorf exclaimed upon coming close enough to actually talk to Link. "What's brought you out of your little forest village today? Or are you heading to Hyrule Castle for the same reason I am?"

Link gave him a confused look, motioning to the items he had with him for delivery.

"So it's just a delivery then," Ganondorf said. "In any case, since we're both out riding, I've got a bit of an itch to see who's got the better horse." He patted his large black-coated horse and grinned. "Mas'ud is the fastest horse in all of the Gerudo Desert, as far as I know. You wanna see how he and your mare stack up against one another?"

Link nodded enthusiastically, but then looked worried, glancing back at the delivery goods. He signaled for Ganondorf to wait and dismounted Epona in order to make sure the packages were safely secured. It was only after he triple-checked their ties that he leapt back into the saddle, the fire of the ever-present competitive streak between him and the Gerudo king in his heart and his eyes.

"All right, then, let's get going!" Ganondorf declared eagerly. "On your mark, get set..."

He took off before saying "go", but luckily Link had anticipated this jest and done the same—it wasn't exactly out of character for him, and it's not like they had a wager on the race or anything. The two were neck and neck for most of the run, then Ganondorf began to pull ahead. Link grimaced; Epona was a breed built for pulling and carrying, not one built for speed like Mas'ud seemed to be. "Faster, faster," Link whispered into her ear, along with a short "yah!" of encouragement, and she began to catch up.

The sky was fading to a deep blue as the two riders approached the gates to the town surrounding Hyrule Castle, with Ganondorf reaching the entrance just before Link did. Their horses were likely exhausted from going at their respective full speeds for so long, but they would be able to give them some rest and water soon enough, and their spirits were high from the friendly match. "Ah, that was entertaining," Ganondorf said with a relaxed sigh. "We should be heading to the castle, then. Come, Link. I've got some horse feed in my pack if Epona needs any before we get there."

Link nodded, patting Epona's neck for a job well done. They passed through the town gate, found a stable to house their horses for a time, then made their way to the castle on foot.

* * *

The opulence of Hyrule Castle was always a sight to behold. The guards manning their post at the doors must have recognized either Link or Ganondorf, maybe both, as upon noticing their approach they motioned for them to be let in. Link adjusted the straps holding his delivery on his back as they made their way inside. His boots on the marble stonework floor echoed in a manner that he still could not get used to, and his wavering steps were a stark contrast to Ganondorf's confident stride. A peculiar feeling kept nagging at Link, and he couldn't be sure if Ganondorf was picking up anything similar, but he was becoming increasingly paranoid that someone was watching him from the shadows.

He let out a short yelp of surprise as he felt cold steel press against his neck and a hand grab his arm, twisting it behind his back.

"State your name and business," a harsh male voice said sharply from behind him. Link was too shocked to speak, which to be honest was not that hard to do considering how he usually was. He didn't know what would set his attacker off, and he couldn't risk trying to look at the guy lest he slice his neck open. "Well?" the man asked. "Why aren't you saying anything?"

"Hey, what the hell do you think you're doing?!" Ganondorf shouted.

"That's what I'd like to know," another stern voice, a female voice and one that Link recognized, said coolly. The owner of the voice stepped out of the shadows—Impa, a renowned general of the Hylian army and Zelda's personal guard. "Let the boy go, Morshei," she said, staring at a point behind Link's head where he assumed his attacker was. "He's a friend of the queen."

The blade left Link's neck and the grip on him was released. He instinctively grabbed at his throat, turning to see who had been so willing to do him in. It was a man who appeared to be around his age, his near-white hair and bright red eye signifying he was of the Sheikah tribe like Impa. "Forgive me," he said, putting away his knife and bowing slightly. "I didn't know you were someone held in such high regard."

"You'll have to excuse Morshei," Impa said, as though he had done nothing more than bump into Link while trying to pass through a narrow hallway. "He's new, and not nearly as trusting of people he doesn't recognize as the outer guards are." Link made an indignant face and pointed to Ganondorf, to which Impa clarified, "He didn't attempt anything with Ganondorf because he knew Zelda had a summons for the Gerudo king, and he must have figured that if either of the two of you was a Gerudo king it certainly wasn't going to be the pale-skinned blond."

"So, what was this about a queen?" Ganondorf asked. "I thought Zelda's mother was..."

"Oh, that wasn't included in your letter?" Impa asked. "Zelda is no longer just the princess, or at least she won't be in a week or so. The king, or rather the king-prior now, has decided his time has come to hand down the throne."

Impa turned, motioning for them to follow her. She led them into a room with an ornate table surrounded by equally ornate chairs in the center. At one of the chairs sat a blond woman about the same age as Link and Ganondorf, dressed in blue and wearing a jeweled tiara atop her head. "Zelda," Impa said sternly, causing the woman to look up in surprise. "Your guests have arrived."

"Guests, plural?" Zelda asked, a light smile appearing on her face. "That's a surprise." She stood and calmly approached the three of them. "It's very good to see you both," she said pleasantly. "I know why Ganondorf is here, but what brings you to the castle, Link?"

Link motioned to the delivery he had brought. "Guess Fergus finished with that order you placed sooner than expected," Impa mused.

"How serendipitous," Zelda said with a smile. "I had been meaning to summon you here as well anyway, once I had given it more thought..." Her smile faltered for a brief instant, changing from an expression of happiness to one of concern. Before anyone could point it out her face became pleasant once more. "Ah, before we begin, would you permit me to see the replica?"

Link nodded, removing both the ceremonial sword and its newly forged replica from his back. Zelda opened the plainer-looking package containing the replica, taking the rapier in her hand. "Amazing," she gasped. "It really does look exactly like the original." She backed away from the other three, sword still in hand, and once she was out of range where it could do any real harm she gave it a few tentative practice swings. "Different weight, of course, and feels less flimsy. This is perfect!" She carefully placed the sword back onto the table. "Thank you very much, Link," she said. "Give my regards to Fergus, if you will. I'm sure he doesn't get many orders for replica blades, and nevertheless he performed spectacularly."

"Why exactly would you need a replica blade, anyway?" Ganondorf asked.

Zelda shrugged. "I like the design," she said simply. "That, and having a functional sword on hand that fits my personal needs may be useful for what is to come."

"And this event that is to come is why you required my presence, is that right?"

"Correct," Zelda said. She turned to Link and added, "It's fortunate that you would arrive today, for I feel what I was to tell Ganondorf concerns you as well."

"Well then, I'd best be off," Impa said, making her way to the door. "Carry on with your briefing."

"You can stay and hear this also, Impa," Zelda insisted. "This isn't something that's for their ears only."

"Unfortunately, it is not with your word that I must make my leave," Impa said as she headed out. "I have training to supervise, and _someone_ needs a talking-to." Link grimaced and his hand slowly made its way closer to his neck—he had a feeling he knew exactly who Impa was talking about.

Zelda motioned for Link and Ganondorf to have a seat, and they did so gladly. She sat as well, folding her hands and wearing a look of worry on her face. "The reason I have called you here is one of grave importance," she said solemnly. "I have been receiving troubling dreams lately, dreams that foretell the possible destruction of Hyrule and her neighboring lands. I am concerned that these dreams may be more than just the musings of my subconscious, but actual premonitions."

"I understand your concern entirely, Zelda," Ganondorf said. "However, I would suggest against putting too much stock into dreams, no matter how prophetic they may come across as."

Link shrugged. On one hand, he wasn't too keen on making decisions based on weird dreams, but on the other hand he had once personally experienced an odd event where he had dreamed his grandmother's Cuccos would escape and make a feathery rampage throughout the village the week before it actually happened. Of course, that wasn't quite as unlikely an occurrence as one might believe.

"Of course I am not just mindlessly following the whimsy of my dreams," Zelda said, giving Ganondorf a look that was just as sharp as a vocalized scolding. "I did some research after countless nights of this same dream, and the subjects within lined up disturbingly close with both an ancient prophecy and a pattern of historical events." She sighed. "There is a darkness coming. It has come before, and it will come again. In the past, when this darkness has begun to take hold, there were always three people involved. Among the three of them, they were known to display the courage of a warrior, the wisdom of a leader, and the power of a king."

"A disgraced king," Ganondorf interjected. "I'm starting to recognize what you're talking about, and I hope you're not making the connections in the way I think you are."

"In a sense, I suppose I am," Zelda said. "But circumstances are different for you and for him. Just because you share a name with the man who history has often called the Demon King does not mean I believe you to be anything like your namesake. It is an unfortunate coincidence."

"So what do you want us to do?" Link's voice, in the rare instance he allowed it to be heard, was often quiet and unsure of the words coming forth. However, this simple question had in it a sense of purpose, reflecting the inner strength he felt in that moment.

"I have a plan," Zelda said. "Or rather, I have the rough draft of a plan that I feel would be effective but has quite a large amount of wiggle room."

She took a piece of paper from her dress's pocket and unfolded it, revealing it to be a copy of an ancient book's pages. "The Amulets of the Goddesses," she declared. "I believe that if we can collect these and unite them, we will be able to prevent this darkness from taking hold." She met Link's gaze. "One of the amulets, Farore's Courage, would likely be located somewhere around the southern forest. It would make sense for you to look for it." Link nodded in agreement. "I know for a fact that Nayru's Wisdom is located in Zora's Domain, and as I have been meaning to visit them for some time regardless I shall be retrieving that one."

"And what about me?" Ganondorf asked with a sly grin. "You wouldn't have called me here just to leave me out, after all."

"Din's Power is held by the great dragon Volga," Zelda said. "He often makes his home in Death Mountain, but I have heard reports that he has temporarily migrated to the Gerudo Desert. I would say this would make things easier for you to obtain it."

"Perfect," Ganondorf said.

"So then, we're all in agreement?" Zelda asked. "This will be our plan to prevent the darkness?"

"Count me in," Ganondorf said. Link said nothing, as per usual, but nodded with a smile.

"Thank you both," Zelda said with genuine gratitude. "I have every confidence that I can count on you, for the sake of Hyrule and the world."

* * *

 **AN:** Woo, I bet no one was expecting this from me! ...okay, unless they were following me on Tumblr for the past few weeks, then they were probably expecting this as I've been teasing things. Concept doodles and the like. But yeah, Zelda fic. This was initially inspired by a post I came across once that put forth the idea of Ganondorf starting off as a friend to Link and Zelda (hence the completely benign introduction and following scenes featuring him) and basically Things Happening to ruin everything, as usually happens with adventure protagonists. I haven't found that post again to say whether or not this is going to closely line up with it, or even to be able to credit it, but that was the springboard for this whole thing so I figured I should at least mention it. Also, before I forget, I need to mention the state of Link's dialogue in this story. He's going to be mostly nonverbal, with the occasional line when absolutely necessary, but people will be able to easily figure out what he wants to say anyway due to reasons I will explain later.

I'd like to point out that Lori is not meant to be an OC. She's actually meant to be this story's take on Linkle, but renamed as she's this Link's twin sister and I doubt their parents are THAT uncreative with names. Kinda like how Purlo from Twilight Princess is to Tingle. Yeah. STAR Game guy is a more realistic Tingle. Kooloo-limpah indeed. That doesn't mean there won't be OCs, of course, not with my love of the things. Link's parents, Fergus and Meredith, are minor OCs, as is Morshei, and there will be more to come. Don't worry, I'll try not to let them overshadow canon characters too badly. They'll just be there to fill the roles that a normal Zelda game would typically create a new character for rather than bring old ones back, because if this were official it would be a new part of the timeline, not a direct continuation. Of course I'm not above throwing in some of my old favorites for author appeal, along with at least one that seems to have a rather large fan following despite me not really caring too much for the character outside of them being very appropriate for their canon role and fan-directed interactions with one of my faveys. (I'll give you a hint: that character has technically already been introduced in this chapter, even if they and the favey they were connected with weren't directly named.)

—Jess aka PuppyLuver256


	2. The Amulet of Wisdom

" _One day, I would like to see the world."_

Her mother smiled. The princess had always been a bright girl with a wide-eyed amazement of everything there was to learn. Still, this was a fairly grown-up statement from a girl her age.

" _You would, would you? When you're a bit older, perhaps. The world is a big place for a little girl, after all. It's a big place for big girls too, but you'll be big yourself then, so it will be a bit safer._ "

The princess pulled a large book off of the shelf, opening the pages to see illustrations of the widely varied people in the lands around that which her parents ruled.

" _I think I should become a big girl quicker, then. If I'm ever to meet all these people, I will need all the time I can get._ "

Her eyes passed over the illustrations as she fantasized her adventures across the world. She could see herself swimming with the Zora, climbing mountains with Gorons, gliding on makeshift wings alongside the Rito in flight, and sailing across the desert sands with the Gerudo women.

" _Is our world the only one, Mother?_ "

The queen was surprised by this question. Truth be told, it was a question that she could not answer.

" _I don't know, dear. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. What's got you thinking about other worlds all of a sudden?_ "

The princess was hesitant to answer, but she knew that her mother would never look down on her for being inquisitive. It was one of her best qualities, she always said, that she had a mind eager for knowledge. Had she not been royalty, she would make an excellent scholar. Or perhaps one could be both?

" _I've just seen so many references to other worlds in the historical books to other worlds, so I wasn't sure if they were real or just stories that ancient people made up._ "

She sighed wistfully.

" _Maybe there are other worlds. I'd like to see them too._ "

* * *

It was early in the morning when Link and Ganondorf made their leave. Zelda had sent them off with provisions for the road, and once they had left, she began to prepare for her own departure. She of course had a valiant steed of her own, a brilliant white stallion by the name of Victorious, whom she knew had it in him to carry her and whatever supplies she might need on her journey to Zora's Domain. He was fitted with a more practical variant of the royal riding gear, as in all honesty all of that regalia was mostly style over substance. Likewise, Zelda had changed her own outfit for something more practical, a pair of riding pants as opposed to the flowing skirt of the dress she had been wearing.

Her preparations complete, Zelda climbed onto Victorious' back and stroked his neck. "You all set to go, Vic?" she asked softly. Victorious responded with a snort of approval. She lightly snapped the reins and set him off on a trot. They had only barely gotten out of the stable when Zelda saw Impa standing just outside its door. "Oh, um...good morning, Impa!" Zelda nervously stammered out.

"Taking Victorious out for a morning ride?" Impa asked.

"Yes, exactly!" Zelda said with a bit too much forced enthusiasm. "We haven't been out together for a while, you see, and I figured he could use some fresh air and space to stretch his legs."

Impa's eyebrow raised in suspicion, almost instinctually. "And this 'fresh air' and 'space' can only be found somewhere that necessitates a few days' worth of supplies and a weapon to reach?"

Zelda sighed. "Nothing gets past you, I see, as usual," she said.

"So where are you actually going?"

"Zora's Domain," Zelda told her. "I'm heading there to retrieve the Amulet of Wisdom. Plus, a visit to meet the new Zora queen would be a nice bonus, don't you think?"

"I would strongly advise against this spontaneous course of action," Impa said sternly. "As the soon-to-be-crowned queen of Hyrule, the people need you safe and unharmed."

"Don't do this to me, Impa," Zelda said with an indignant sigh. "I'm a grown woman, not a little princess who needs constant protection. I can handle things just fine, and there's no better time to prove that then now."

"Yes, but as a leader, you need to make rational decisions. You can't go off on your own flights of fancy just to prove you can." Impa's harsh gaze then softened into a knowing smile. "I'm not trying to stop you. I'm just saying that it's dangerous to go alone." Zelda beamed. She knew exactly what Impa meant by that.

* * *

Soon enough, Zelda and Impa had set off from the castle. The sun shone bright in the sky overhead, mirroring Zelda's optimistic feelings at present. "I do hope this goes smoothly," Zelda said. "I'd hate for my request of the amulet to make relations with the Zora people go sour."

"You did explain the entirety of your plan to Link and Ganondorf, right?" Impa asked. "So they'll know what to do on their end?"

Zelda hesitated. "The truth is...I left out some details. I didn't want to upset them with a certain part of it."

"It's not a good idea to hide important details from your allies," Impa said.

"I know, but..." Zelda sighed. "It's about Ganondorf. No, that's not entirely true, rather it's about his namesake. In one of my dreams telling of the darkness, I saw a man that looked like an older Ganondorf. He was surveying a ravaged Hyrule with what I can only describe as sadistic delight, gloating over the destruction before he turned into a massive beast."

"Ganon."

"I was worried that Ganondorf would take this as a sign that I did not trust him, at least on a subconscious level," Zelda said. "I didn't want to cause him to become upset, not just as someone who needs an ally to save this land, but as his friend."

Impa said nothing, pulling back on the reins of her horse and putting up a hand to signal for Zelda to do the same. "I hear someone following us," she said in a whisper.

"Following us?" Zelda repeated, equally hushed. "Who is it?"

"I have a feeling..." Impa glared at the nearby trees and dismounted her horse, taking hold of the naginata she had brought. She cautiously approached the trees. Zelda dismounted Victorious, her newly forged sword in hand, and was about to follow her before Impa signaled for her to stay back.

A flash of red crossed their vision as a figure leapt out from the trees, followed by another in the same color. They looked human in general body shape, with every inch of skin covered in a red form-fitting outfit and a mask obscuring their face, and they were armed. They both gave a shout and ran straight for Zelda, sickles out and ready to strike.

They didn't get far before Impa's naginata made quick work of them.

"Yiga," Impa said, the name sounding as though it left a bitter taste in her mouth just to allow it passage through her lips. "I thought they were dealt with centuries ago. Why in the world are they active again..."

"You don't think it could have something to do with my vision, do you?" Zelda asked.

"Even if it does, that just means we have to get going in case they come to." Impa wiped the blood from the end of her naginata before mounting her horse again. "With any luck, they could just be brigands using Yiga imagery for intimidation. I doubt that to be the case, but it's still possible."

Zelda made her way to Victorious to do the same, but paused. "Don't you think we should take off their masks?" she asked. "There are people under there, and it just wouldn't sit right to leave them faceless."

"There's no guarantee they aren't simply feigning unconsciousness right now," Impa said sternly. "And I'd rather not remove those masks to see any faces I recognize."

* * *

After making a quick stop in Kakariko Village for Impa to check in on some family, they had continued on their way to Zora's Domain. As they made their way along the path, the surrounding flora seemed to gradually more resemble coral and land-based kelp than the sorts of things that grew in and around the castle town. "I wonder whether or not these plant variations are natural," Zelda thought aloud.

"I don't see why they wouldn't be," Impa said.

"Oh, I don't doubt that they're actual living things," Zelda insisted. "It's just, did these plants develop this way naturally, or did the Zora perhaps cultivate them in such a way as to resemble underwater scenery?"

Impa chuckled. "Perhaps you can ask one of them when we arrive."

Continuing on, they could both see and hear the churning waves of Hyrule's largest lake, Lake Hylia. It was here that the vast majority of Hyrule's fresh water originated, and it was here where the Zora people lived. All along the water's edge, people covered in scales and fish-like features went about their daily routine, some of them taking notice of the mammalian strangers approaching their domain. Once Zelda and Impa had arrived at the gate, two Zora wearing armor and carrying spears blocked their progress. "Halt!" one of the Zora guards ordered, their voice slightly distorted by the helmet obscuring their face. "What business do you have in Zora's Domain?"

"I am Zelda, princess and soon-to-be-crowned queen of Hyrule, and this is the Sheikah tribe leader Impa," Zelda said, her tone having a sense of authority that she rarely called upon. "We wish to have an audience with the queen of the Zora people to discuss matters that concern all parts of the greater Hyrule region."

"Well, you certainly look legitimate enough," the other Zora guard said. "Very well. You may enter, but I must warn you that the queen may not be so keen on an audience at this particular moment. We are presently dealing with a bit of a crisis, you see."

"Oh, I apologize," Zelda said. "If there's any way we might be able to help..."

"Our queen may be somewhat proud, but I'm sure she would appreciate the offer at the very least," the first guard said. "Oh, and before you enter, I would recommend leaving your horses out here. Our domain isn't exactly built with equine anatomy in mind."

The waterfall began to part, revealing an opening that led into a large and ornately decorated chamber. Zelda and Impa hitched their horses outside, then entered through the opening. The errant spray from the waterfall's new direction could not quell Zelda's amazement at the sight. Limestone pillars accented with large luminous stones held up several platforms upon which housing and places of business were built, and ample natural light filtered into the expanse through holes in the ceiling, some of which were sealed with large transparent colored stones that resembled stained glass. "It's amazing..." Zelda said in barely a gasp.

"It would behoove the queen of Hyrule not to stand around with her mouth open like that, otherwise one might mistake Your Highness for a landlocked carp."

Zelda turned to the source of the voice. It, of course, belonged to a Zora. Her scales were green in color, and her face bore a slight scowl. Silver and sapphire jewelry adorned her form, and set on her forehead was a circlet in the shape of the Zora crest. "You must be the Zora queen," Zelda said.

"How very astute of a monarch to be stating the obvious," the Zora queen snapped. "I am Queen Oshana, and now is not really the best time for dignitary visits."

"We heard it from the gatekeepers," Impa said. "You mind telling us what's going on?"

Oshana groaned. "Of course, leave it to those two to blab," she muttered. She shook her head and added, "We are in a dire situation at the moment, yes, but it does not concern tourists, even if they are royalty."

"Well, maybe we could do something to help," Zelda offered. "We did originally come here to ask of something from you, but that would be a selfish request while your people may be suffering."

"My people?" Oshana repeated. "I should clarify, my people are not the ones suffering. Quite the contrary, on the whole we are flourishing. No, the one who is suffering is our guardian, Lord Jabu-Jabu. It seems he has fallen ill, and even our best doctors can't figure out what the cause could be."

"That doesn't sound good," Zelda said.

"I do have a theory," Oshana continued, "but as we have been busy keeping him stable I haven't had the chance to investigate. Of course, with two extra people, such a task would be made somewhat easier. So how about it? Are you willing to put your rupees where your mouth is?"

Before Impa could say anything that might even hint to the possibility of denial, Zelda exclaimed "Absolutely! We're not just going to leave you hanging knowing there's a problem that we may be able to help solve."

"Excellent." Oshana's harsh exterior seemed to soften a bit, and Zelda may have been imagining it, but she could swear she see the slightest hint of a smile. "Let's get going, then."

* * *

The large spring where Lord Jabu-Jabu rested was just as ornately decorated as the rest of Zora's Domain, if not more so. One would be forgiven for not paying attention to the aesthetic of the area, of course, as their attention would most likely be drawn to the giant fish-like beast floating near the spring's edge. Low, loud groans of pain and anguish emanated from the noble guardian, and several Zoras were stationed near him and tending to him as best they could. "This way," Oshana said, leading Zelda and Impa past Lord Jabu-Jabu and down to where the constructed platform met the natural shoreline. "You two can swim, right?"

"Swim?" In all fairness, while they both were decent swimmers, Zelda hadn't been expecting that swimming would be a necessity in this endeavor.

Impa nodded and asked, "So where are we swimming to?"

"We're heading to that cave over there," Oshana explained, pointing to a cavern on the other side of the water. "It's almost unheard of for non-Zora people to be taken there, so as you can imagine we don't feel the need to keep a boat in the spring." She dove into the water, then surfaced and turned back to check on them. "Come on, then," she insisted. "You won't need to do any diving beyond human capability."

Impa entered the water, and Zelda followed close behind. It was cold, but not bitterly so, just enough to be a noticeable contrast to the generally warm and pleasant air. They made it to the other side after not too long, and Zelda was glad to have had the foresight to wear pants rather than a dress as it likely would have made the swim very difficult. "Note for the future," Zelda said to herself, "whenever I might need to make another visit to Zora's Domain, bring appropriate swimming attire."

"Visitors to Zora's Domain should always expect to take a dip at some point," Oshana said. She let out a soft laugh at her own joke, then turned and made her way into the cavern.

As they made their way through the cave, the sunlight seeping through the opening began to taper off and the remaining light became more and more made up from the luminous stones that dotted the cave walls. It was certainly easy to figure out where all the similar stones from the domain proper came from. "So what's in this cave, exactly?" Impa asked.

"I don't know for certain," Oshana said. "Like I said, I have a theory, but it's not something I can definitely pin down. All I know is that I got the sense of Lord Jabu-Jabu's ailment have a magical origin rather than a medical one, and I caught a whiff of whatever's causing it coming from this cave. And considering we don't come to this cave ourselves all that often, I wouldn't be surprised if something sinister wormed its way in here and made itself at home in its newfound dirty little nest."

A fluttering sound could be heard from up ahead, accompanied by squeaking. The three women shielded their heads as a large camp of keese flew towards them, the shrieking from each individual mixing into a horrendous cacophony. "Keese shouldn't be active at this time of day," Zelda mused once the camp had passed. "Wonder what's got them in a tizzy like that."

"Probably whatever's lurking in here," Oshana said.

They continued onward through the cavern until they came to a large chamber, luminous stones glistening along the walls. "A room like this with nothing in it..." Impa grimaced, keeping a firm grip on her naginata. "I've got a bad feeling about this."

Zelda took hold of her sword. This would be her first time using a weapon in actual combat, that is if anything of the sort were to happen, and she wasn't entirely sure she would be completely ready. Well, no better way to find out if she was ready than with some hands-on experience.

"If neither of you are going to try and find out what's up ahead, then I will," Oshana insisted, stepping forward with her spear pointed ahead of her. "Watch my back, all right?" She strode toward the center of the chamber, keeping an eye on her peripherals as she did so. Something briefly caught her eye, but before she could react lightning danced across her body and she let out a sharp yell of pain as she fell. A rippling shape flew through the air and a cackle could be heard. "Get down!" Oshana shouted, as more lightning was fired from a point in thin air, this time towards Zelda and Impa.

The warning came with just enough time for at least one of them to react properly. Impa grabbed Zelda by the arm and pulled her out of the way, the lightning hitting the wall and cracking a few luminous stones free from their embedding. "Be careful," she said, "the enemy seems to have hidden itself somehow."

"A hidden enemy?" Zelda asked, surprised. She had heard of creatures that could make themselves and other beings invisible to the naked eye, and they were certainly ones that had skill in magic. There wasn't much time to think, however; she saw the air ripple, as well as the start of a lightning strike charging. "There it is!"

Impa lunged at the space and struck. Upon contact with the enemy, a harsh screech was heard as it came into view: a humanoid figure wearing a loose-fitting robe and holding a lightning rod. "Of _course_ it would be a Wizzrobe," she said through gritted teeth. "They always use this irritating sort of tactic."

The Wizzrobe, now wounded and fully exposed, began to panic and flail its rod about. Bolts of lightning shot across the room at random, loosing small rocks everywhere. Oshana had stood back up, still shaking from the shock, and with an angry shout threw her spear at the Wizzrobe just as Zelda ran it through with her own blade. The wounds from each woman's attack were enough to be fatal; with a final scream of anguish, the Wizzrobe dissipated into smoke, defeated. "That wasn't as difficult as I thought it was going to be," Zelda mused.

"It's only going to get more difficult," Oshana said, picking her spear up off the ground. "I get the feeling that one wasn't the only one." She motioned them to follow her in deeper. "There's not much more depth to this place, so if I'm right it'll be in the next area."

They made their way deeper within. The smattering of luminous stones along the wall became less frequent, and as such the cavern began to dim. As they reached the absolute depths of the cave, they found a robed humanoid figure mulling over something that its form obscured. The figure turned around-another Wizzrobe, this one's attire being more ornate than the first. "I didn't think these things ever travelled in pairs," Impa said.

Angered by the presence of three strangers, the Wizzrobe let out a shriek and took hold of its staff. It swirled its staff in the air, charging up some sort of magic attack. "Watch out!" Zelda cried. A volley of fireballs flew from the Wizzrobe's staff, which they managed to dodge just in time, immediately followed by a spray of ice that caught Zelda by the leg. She panicked, trying to pull herself free as the cackling Wizzrobe advanced toward her.

"Hey, ugly! Over here!"

The Wizzrobe turned—Oshana had gotten behind it and was running toward it, spear at the ready. Heat radiated as the Wizzrobe charged another fireball assault, and as it did so Zelda could feel the ice around her leg start to loosen from melting. More fireballs flew across the room at both Oshana and Impa, one of them grazing Oshana's arm. She winced from the pain, but smirked as her diversion had worked. Zelda has managed to get her leg free, and before the Wizzrobe could turn around she struck it with her sword. It doubled over in pain, the wound in a place that was unlikely to make it a fatal blow, and with a furious glare it vanished in a puff of smoke. "Is it gone?" Zelda asked.

"I think so," Oshana said. "The cave seems a little clearer now, somehow."

The three of them turned their attention to the object that the Wizzrobe had been mulling over. It was a cauldron of sorts, filled with a thick violet sludge. Zelda approached it and, noting the scooping implements scattered about the ground, picked one up and scooped up some of the cauldron's contents. Frowning, she gingerly put the substance near her face and gave it a cautious sniff. Immediately she threw the scooped substance away, gagging and coughing. "Yep, that's definitely some kind of poison," she said nonchalantly, trying to suppress her urge to vomit.

Oshana examined the base of the cauldron closely, her face falling as she did so. "Oh gods," she muttered. "This thing's been set up so that the poison automatically filters into the spring. You know that spring is one of Hyrule's main fresh water sources, right?"

"That monster was trying to infect anyone who uses water from this spring," Zelda said in realization. "How awful..."

"Lord Jabu-Jabu was just more sensitive to the initial dosing, I take it," Oshana mused. "That would explain why none of the Zora are noticeably ill, that is. I was wrong about the source of his illness being purely magic, but that's obviously besides the point."

"It's a good thing we've stopped it, then," Impa said.

The mechanism at the cauldron's base was relatively simple to turn off, so Oshana did so without any issue. "I'll get some more savvy people in here to properly dismantle this later," she told them. "In the meantime, I should uphold my end of the bargain. What was it you came here looking for?"

"We came to borrow the Amulet of Wisdom," Zelda said in no uncertain terms. "Would you happen to know where it is kept?"

Oshana laughed. "Of course I know where it is," she said. "It is kept in the Zora monarch's throne. Normally I wouldn't just hand it over, but in your case I believe you've earned it."

They exited the cave and, after another short swim, returned to the shore where Lord Jabu-Jabu was resting. It may have just been optimism, but Zelda thought the guardian was beginning to look better already. Once they had reentered Zora's Domain, Oshana led them to the throne. She touched her spear to the large sapphire ornament on top of the throne and it opened, revealing a small blue trinket hanging from an old leather strap. Carefully nudging her spear to hook onto the strap, she brought it down and dropped it into Zelda's outstretched hand. The amulet was engraved with the emblem of Nayru, the same symbol the Zora had took on as their own. "I still can't believe it's real," Zelda said.

"Don't let that get into the wrong hands," Oshana warned.

"Don't worry," Zelda said with a smile. "I shall keep it safe at all costs, I guarantee it."

* * *

 **AN:** Possibly obligatory reference to one of, possibly _the_ oldest of Zelda lines? Check, got that out of the way early. And since I had Zelda bring up a disparity between regular Ganondorf and this story's version of him, I should mention that this Ganondorf is quite a bit younger than most canon depictions. I see canon-dorf as being in his late 40s or mid 50s (in mentality and physical appearance if not necessarily actual years) when in his human form, whereas this Ganondorf is similar in age to this Link and Zelda, all three of them being in their early to mid 20s. That's part of why this Ganondorf is an ally rather than an enemy, he's got more of a youthful open-mindedness about him. Of course, that also makes him fairly cocky, as we'll see more of later...

More to the point with this chapter's main events, I love Zoras! Possibly my favorite Zelda race, unless there's a dog-themed one that I'm not familiar with, in which case that will become my new favorite. (I love dogs so muuuuch.) I figured it would be cool for the vegetation leading to Zora's Domain to resemble ocean plantlife and coral, and I don't know how much of that was based on what I've actually seen of Breath of the Wild, but I'm pretty sure that was the origin because I distinctly remember seeing coral trees in one of Yoshiller's videos! ...or am I mixing up memories of entirely different game series? That's entirely possible as well.

I'd like to thank PaintBrushJr for that _super_ -detailed review, hoo boy, that's the kind of thing writers like! Or at least it's the kind of thing I like. I'm gonna keep your suggestions for improvement in mind, and hopefully I've managed to make progress on at least one of them here (trying to round out the characters more, in this case Zelda and Impa). Unfortunately I don't know how I would go about putting this in a hypothetical spot on the timeline, as I'm looking at this kind of like a more traditional Zelda take on either Hyrule Warriors or Breath of the Wild, where there's plenty of references to previous games (be it as little as nods to events or as big as whole characters) but an accurate placement on the timeline would be dubious at best. And Skull Kid's inclusion (as well as a character from the intro that will be properly introduced in a few more chapters) isn't any indication of appropriate timeline placement for one big reason: he's my favorite Zelda character, so to not include him would be heartbreaking for me. As for the seemingly rushed nature of the first chapter...I will admit, that's a big problem I struggle with on the regular, even in my original stuff. I was just impatient to get through the more expository events and into the planned events I'm really excited about, hehe. Hopefully I can get the pacing to stay at a more appropriate level from here on out.

—Jess aka PuppyLuver256


	3. The Amulet of Courage

Tears streamed down his face as he ran. Everyone was disappointed in him, looked down on him, all because he couldn't bear to speak like they did. They called him stupid, as if intelligence could only be displayed in words. It wasn't that he was incapable of verbalizing his thoughts. The words from his mouth would always be much louder than anything else he heard, be it others' speech or the sounds of the world, and it physically hurt to listen to himself. This particular incident had been the last straw—his own sister had called him an idiot just because he wouldn't communicate in the accepted manner.

It was only when he felt the burning in his legs from running so far that he realized he did not recognize his surroundings. Trees encroached from all directions, blotting out the sun almost entirely. His sadness turned into fear as the fact that he did not know where he was or from which direction he had come.

" _Hey!_ "

He heard it, but even after looking around he couldn't see where the voice had come from. He then noticed something glimmering in the darkness, a small ball of light that seemed to flutter about in one spot. He approached it cautiously. The ball of light had long insect-like wings, one of which was trapped underneath a fallen branch. It fluttered and flailed, trying desperately in vain to free itself, but the branch was too heavy for its meager efforts. It was not, however, too heavy for him to move, even at his young age. Carefully so as to not accidentally tear the thing's wing apart, he lifted the branch and set it aside. It quickly flew off, the light sound of bells jingling trailed behind it.

" _Well, well, aren't you a kind little boy?_ "

He gasped and turned around. The voice he had just heard...he could've sworn it was right behind him, but there was no one there. A giggling ran out through the trees.

" _Don't see too many humans this deep in. You've got a good heart in you, too. I like that._ "

He turned again, this time catching a brief glimpse of movement. Something tapped him on the shoulder and he turned once more. He gasped-there was a face mere inches from his. Instead of soft skin, the face seemed to be made from wood, with one glowing lamp-like eye visible through a mess of long leaves. Their lipless mouth was spread into a wide, toothy grin. He screamed, terrified at this stranger's sudden appearance, then immediately covered his ears from the sound of his own voice.

" _Hey, no need to be scared. I've got no need to hurt you, now that you've proven you've got no wish to hurt my friends._ "

He took a good look at the stranger. The rest of their child-sized form seemed to be made from wood as well, underneath a roughly-made outfit likely made from something similar to burlap. They were carrying a staff that held a softly-glowing lantern, and the lantern's glow made him feel more at ease with the stranger's off-putting appearance.

" _So you got a name or what?"_

He hesitated. His usual anxieties were coming back in full force, and he had no idea what this person would do if he didn't respond. He didn't have to wait long to find out, however; without warning, the stranger put a finger to his forehead.

" _Link, is it? And not much of a talker, but that's all right. Way too often people are too busy talking to even think about listening._ "

Link was perplexed by this. How had the stranger read his mind just by the touch of a single finger?

" _The Skull Kid works in mysterious ways, Linky-boy. That's my name, by the way. Skull Kid. Tell you what: you've been a good boy and helped out one of my little friends, so I'm gonna help you._ "

Skull Kid held out his hands, and two fairies appeared before them, one a pale lavender and the other a bright yellow.

" _One for telling, and one for knowing._ "

He then smashed the two fairies together in his hands. Link was startled by the sudden violent act. When Skull Kid opened his hands, a pendant shaped like a fairy lay where the fairies once were.

" _Wear this, and you will be able to always let people know what you want to say without a single spoken word. And don't worry about those two—their energy will create new bodies within the week._ "

Link took hold of the pendant and put it on. He was grateful to this strange child, but he still had no idea how to get home.

" _The path behind me should get you back to that human village. Just follow the fairy lights and you'll be fine._ "

* * *

Link couldn't help but reminisce as he was approaching the forest that bordered his little village. Every time he saw strange lights in the trees, he no longer felt frightened like he used to as a child, but rather nostalgic and comforted. He held the fairy pendant he wore in his hand and smiled, wondering if Skull Kid would pop out of nowhere to greet him again on his return. Sadly, or perhaps fortunately for Epona's nerves, the strange forest child was nowhere to be seen and his travel on the path through the forest was rather uneventful.

It was nearly noon when Link and Epona arrived back at Fairhill, and despite how much he enjoyed the opportunity to travel given to him by his delivery job, it was always good to come home. His grandmother's chickens had gotten loose again, and as the flock ran past Lori followed close behind. He decided not to bother her, as clearly her hands were full enough as it was.

Once Link had put Epona back in her stable, he made his way to Fergus's smithy to let him know everything went well. As he entered the building, he saw his mother Meredith tinkering with the forge, making small adjustments with specialized tools while Fergus stood back and watched. "And that should just about do it," Meredith said, wiping her brow. "You wanna turn it back on?"

"I think I'd be more comfortable if you did it, dear," Fergus insisted.

"All right, then." Meredith grabbed the lever on the side and pulled down on it hard. Almost as soon as she had done so, a low humming sounded through the building and the starting of flames could be seen within the forge, thankfully in the place where they were supposed to be. "Looks like it's working just fine now!" She gave her husband a smug look. "And you thought it was broken for good this time, ha!"

"Well, I could've made do with a regular forge if it was, I just didn't want the thing belchin' smoke all the time."

"I appreciate your work too, hon," Meredith said with a laugh. She turned to Link with a smile. "And how's my favorite son doing? Back safe from your trip to the castle, I take it?"

Link laughed and approached Meredith for a hug. The "favorite son" thing was an old joke she liked to pull out from time to time, using a "favorite daughter" equivalent for Lori just as often. "Hi, Mom," he said softly. "Everything's good."

"That's lovely to hear, both figuratively and literally."

They broke away from the hug, and Link quickly moved over to Fergus to give him one as well. "So the princess enjoyed her order, then?" Fergus asked. Link nodded and smiled. "Ah, wonderful," he said with a sigh of relief. "Well, now that you're home, you must be famished from yer trip. Yer gran's been makin' her pumpkin soup today, it might be done by now. Why don't you go see for yerself?"

Link gasped in surprise. Grandma's pumpkin soup! His favorite! He excitedly ran out of the smithy and raced down the road, eager for his favorite meal, and more importantly the warm greeting of a loving grandmother.

He arrived at his grandmother's house shortly and practically leapt over the gate in his enthusiasm, taking care not to accidentally aggravate one of the many re-penned Cuccos pecking about the place. Link never was quite as fond of them as Lori had been, namely due to the fact that he got the suspicion that they were regularly out for blood, his specifically. As he entered the house, he saw Lori and their grandmother chatting away as she made her famous soup, a Cucco with blue-tinged feathers sitting in Lori's lap. "Oh, Link!" Lori exclaimed when she noticed him. "When'd you get back?"

"Ah, both my lovely grandchildren are here," their grandmother said warmly. "Were you just excited to see me upon your return or did you just come in for some soup?" Link had to let out a nervous laugh. She could read him like a book, as always. "It's just about ready, don't worry. This will be just the thing to soothe you after your travels."

Sure enough, within the hour the soup was finished and they were joined by Fergus and Meredith. Together they enjoyed a delightful meal of pumpkin soup along with a freshly baked loaf of bread, taking in the happiness that was spending company with one's loved ones. It was absolutely lovely.

* * *

It was well into the evening before it came back to him. Link had been resting in his bed when he sat bolt upright. The amulets! He had almost forgotten the mission Zelda had set out for him entirely! Was there really something like that hidden in the forest just near his home? There was only one way to find out, after all. He grabbed his sword and, careful not to disturb anyone who may be sleeping, made his way out the door.

He approached the forest on foot, as he knew that Epona did not care for its depths very much. She only barely tolerated the path through to the rest of Hyrule. As Link passed through the thicket, he could only wonder what sort of place would be hidden in there that could be so significant. He had lived just outside of this forest all his life, after all, and had been in it enough to have a vague idea of its contents. Though to be fair, he had only gone in really deep once...

A twig snapped behind him, bringing him out of his thoughts. Instinct took over before he could give it any thought—he grabbed the hilt of his sword and turned to the sound. "Whoa, whoa, it's just me! Take it easy!" It was dark and he couldn't make properly make out the appearance of the human-shaped figure, but he was deeply familiar with that voice. Letting out a sigh of relief, he unhanded his sword as Lori slowly approached. "Geez, were you really gonna run me through with that thing?" she asked.

While Link was glad that the person that had followed him was just Lori, he was confused as to why she was there. What did she think she was doing, coming into the depths of the forest like this? Did she forget about all the warnings they had been told about the place when they were kids?

"You're the one traipsing in here by yourself, don't give me that look," Lori said, clearly miffed. "We're the same damn age, and neither of us is a child. Besides, I came just as armed as you did."

Lori pulled an object from her waist, and Link could tell from what little available moonlight was filtering through the trees and reflecting off its form that it was her trusty crossbow that she used to protect the Cuccos from predators. Well, that was good at least. He should've known that she wouldn't come in unprepared. But still, considering her terrible sense of direction, it probably wasn't a very good idea for her to come along, for that reason alone if nothing else.

"Don't worry, I brought the compass to go along with your internal one." Sure enough, strapped to her belt was the compass that their mother had given her several years ago. It was her personal treasure which she usually kept safe in a box in her room, but if there's one time that's appropriate for bringing along a compass, it's when you're going somewhere that would be easy to get lost in. As long as they remembered the village was to the west, they likely wouldn't have to worry about getting lost regardless.

The twins made their way deeper into the forest, taking care not to fall over anything in the darkness. Lori had attached a luminous stone, something that Link had brought back from one of his deliveries, to her compass so they could read it even with the low light. As Link kept his eyes on their surroundings to see if anything strange showed up, Lori insisted on telling him some things about the Cuccos she had learned while he was away. "And did you know that somehow Cuccos are descended from the same creatures as Lizalfos and Dinolfos?" she asked, her delight for talking about her feathery charges shining through her words. "Apparently the Rito people are as well, but from what Mum says they get offended if you bring it up."

Link did enjoy listening her gush about the Cuccos, even if he personally didn't care much for them himself. He had no problem letting her make enough conversation for the both of them on most days. Suddenly he stopped. He had seen something glowing out of the corner of his eye, and it definitely wasn't the stone on Lori's compass.

"Did you see that, too?" Lori asked in a hushed whisper. She didn't have to wait for an answer, because a ball of light chose that moment to buzz past between them. "What the hell was that?!"

An eerie laughter rang out around them. The forest had become marginally brighter, as several balls of light had sprung forth from the foliage around them. They were flying about haphazardly, darting this way and that in a manner that seemed to be panicked or just generally frantic. As Link shielded his face from the sudden brightness of the lights, and felt insect-like wings brush against his hand as they did so, he couldn't help but feel that they were intentionally trying to confuse or distract them.

" _ **Who dares set foot in my forest uninvited!**_ " an ethereal voice called, the source of the voice remaining unseen. A single light, brighter than the ones flying around them, shone through the darkness. It glowed like a flame, illuminating a figure standing on a large stump before them.

"We're from the village!" Lori shouted. "We came here to look for something important! We didn't mean any harm, promise!"

" _ **I shall be the judge of tha—**_ wait a minute." The voice suddenly seemed more...normal, for lack of a better word, and definitely a lot less intimidating. The figure jumped down from the stump, and now that their light was in front of their face Link could see exactly who it was. "Linky-boy!" Skull Kid exclaimed. "This is quite the pleasant surprise, what brings you to my neck of the woods this late at night?"

Link fell back onto his backside. This was the second time this evening he had been scared by a familiar face, and as this instance had been intentional (not to mention fairly effective), he really had to catch his breath.

"Ah, c'mon, you know I gotta keep the forest safe," Skull Kid said playfully. "If that means scaring the pants off wanderers, that's what I do. You understand, don't ya, pally?"

"Hang on a tick," Lori said, confused. "D'you know this...whatever we've got before us, then?"

Skull Kid turned to Lori and gave her an odd look. "Yeah, we're well acquainted, Link-a-bud and I," he said. "How come you look so much like him, though?" Before Lori could answer, he held out a hand and added, "No, don't tell me. You're the sister, right?"

Lori nodded. "That's right," she said. "Link, why've you been hiding the fact you know some...forest guardian...child thing?"

Skull Kid looked back at Link and feigned an expression of offense. "You never told anyone about little old me?" he gasped. "Never even once let your own sister know about the amazing Skull Kid? That's a shame, a darn shame, kiddo."

Link rolled his eyes. He never told them because he was never sure if he was even allowed to, let alone if they would believe him.

"Of course I'd believe you!" Lori insisted. "We're family! I'm just wondering as to when you'd meet...erm, Skull Kid, was it?"

"Correct, sister-friend," Skull Kid said, leaning on his lantern staff in a very casual manner. "And it was a _looooong_ time ago. Well, for you guys, anyway. Fifteen years ain't nothin' for me, hehe. Helped him out of an emotional and societal jam, you could say. Ever wonder where that fancy fairy pendant he's always wearing came from, or why you know how to respond to him when he barely even says a word?"

Lori stared, confused. "Knowing what he wants to say... I thought... I thought that was just twin stuff..." She shook her head; this was no time for even a minor existential crisis. "Look, we're here looking for something really important. Some kind of amulet thing belonging to a goddess, I don't know all the details, I'm just here to help Link. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"

"Oh, you mean the Amulet of Courage, don't you?" Skull Kid said, grinning wide enough to reach wherever his ears would be if he had them. "Yeah, I _miiight_ know something about that. But since you guys are here looking for something like THAT, and I know Link's a good kid so I figure you might be too, maybe you could do me a favor in exchange for some sweet info?"

Link stood and held out his hand to shake. While he didn't like the sound of this "favor", this was one of his earliest true friends, even if he was a pain in the ass sometimes. If there was something Skull Kid needed, he didn't see the harm in at least trying to help.

"So what kind of favor is this, anyway?" Lori asked.

"Follow me and you'll find out."

* * *

Skull Kid made his way deeper into the forest, hanging back long enough for Link and Lori to keep up to the light of his lantern. Soon enough, they had come upon a large tree, the largest and grandest in the entire forest. Its trunk had growths on it that made it look as though it had the face of an old man. "Lady and gentleman, it is with my _greatest_ pleasure that I introduce you to the Greeeeat Deku Tree!" Skull Kid tapped at the base of the tree and smiled. "This is the REAL forest guardian here, I'm just more mobile. But the old fart ain't too chatty at the moment, he's taking himself a senior sick nap 'cuz there's a parasite nestled down in his roots and it's super gross. I'd take care of it myself, but since you guys are here and all I figured we could use this as an opportunity to prove yourselves. What do you say?"

Link was raring to go, but Lori was hesitant. "I still don't entirely trust you," she said. "Who's to say you're not the one who put the parasite in there in the first place?"

"Madam, you wound me!" Skull Kid said with a gasp, actually offended this time. "The GDT might be an old fart, but he's MY old fart! I wouldn't go so far in my messing with him as to cause him actual harm." He tapped the base of the Deku Tree's trunk three times with his lantern staff, and like a reflex the roots lifted to reveal a passage within. "Well, we should get going. That nasty critter ain't gonna kill itself!"

Cautiously, Link made his way inside the passage. It was darker due to the moonlight not being able to penetrate very far, and he could barely see his hand in front of his face. Without warning, the floor of the passage began to slant downward, at such an angle that made it impossible for Link to keep his footing. He shouted in surprise as he slid down into the deeper root system, landing at the bottom with some soreness in his backside. A shriek that was increasing in volume approached him from the same direction he had come, and he felt Lori's boots bump against his back. "That was, whew, that was kind of fun, I'll admit," Lori said with a sigh.

The area began to grow brighter as Skull Kid smoothly slid down the passage, a smug grin on his face as he watched the twins struggle to return to a standing position. "You guys enjoy the ride down?" he asked, giggling when Lori made an indignant face at him. He took a look around, and now with the lantern in a useful range they could all see that the interior of the Deku Tree was covered in what looked like bits of spider's webs. "Eeewww, it's worse than I thought, this mooch has itself _really_ entrenched."

Link winced as his arm brushed against the wall, some of the webbing coming off and sticking to his shirt. He couldn't stand spiders, and if he had any prior indication that they may be dealing with a spider of any particularly large size he would have been a lot less agreeable to the situation. But they'd come this far, and he didn't know of any other way to find out where that amulet Zelda wanted might be, so they might as well take care of it. Besides, he and Lori were both armed. If worst came to worst, they could at least go down fighting.

They made their way further into the root system, and the swaying of Skull Kid's lantern as they walked was admittedly a bit disorienting. Shadows were distorted in the moving light, making the illusion of things moving around them. "Where's this thing likely gonna be?" Lori asked.

"Probably where the roots meet together with the rest of him, I'd wager," Skull Kid said. "That makes the most sense to me."

As they kept walking, Link couldn't help but feel that the ground underneath him was starting to feel a bit more...sticky. It had already been feeling sticky from the smattering of web everywhere, but it was becoming more prominent, and the floor also seemed to be sinking. Just then, he heard what sounded like the snap of a string. He looked down; apparently, they had stepped off of the actual floor and onto a thick web laid over top a hole. Clearly this web couldn't handle the weight of the three of them, and almost as soon as he realized that the web broke, sending all three of them tumbling into the pit, screaming all the while until impact. "That's gonna hurt in the morning," Lori muttered.

Link stood to help her up, but then he noticed Skull Kid was staring at something, a look of fear on his face. He followed his gaze, as did Lori, and they saw the thing that was causing that fear. Clinging to the ceiling was an enormous arachnid creature, with long, spindly legs, clicking mouthparts that dripped with venom, and a large red eye in the center of its face. "Ohhhh sweet merciful Hylia," Skull Kid said in a hushed squeak. "That's a... that's the hugest freakin' Gohma I've ever seen!"

The Gohma let out a piercing shriek that something with its anatomy shouldn't be able to produce. It scuttled around the ceiling then, its eye opening wide and turning a vibrant blue, fired a beam of energy that travelled along the floor towards the three—they only just had time to get out of the way, though not without being blown back by the force of the beam's explosion. "I thought you said you could have handled this on your own!" Lori shouted furiously at Skull Kid.

"In all fairness, I have actually dealt with like two of these things before, but they're not supposed to get this big!" Skull Kid held out his lantern staff, swirling the end with the lantern attached as though it were a magic rod. The flame within the lantern grew brighter with each swirl, until he finally let it loose at the vile creature. It burst in the Gohma's face, but didn't seem to affect it much. Bits of magic flame flew out in every direction, and for a minute Link was worried they would ignite part of the tree before they disappeared harmlessly. "Magic flame, kid," Skull Kid reminded him, "it ain't gonna burn anything I don't want it to."

They had to think quickly. This arachnid's defenses were almost impenetrable, even fire wasn't hurting it, and a direct hit from that beam attack could be devastating. If they could just find a weak point...

A blue light began to fill the room again as the Gohma's eye widened once more. It finally clicked. This thing had one particularly glaring weakness, and Link was mentally kicking himself for not thinking of it sooner. "The eye!" he shouted. "Get the eye!"

Lori didn't question it; she aimed her already loaded crossbow at the creature's eye and fired. Her aim was dead on, and with an impossible screech the Gohma stopped charging its energy beam and fell onto the floor. "Go for it!" she cried. Sword drawn, Link did exactly that. He plunged his blade straight into the enormous eye, and the Gohma flailed its many legs in pain before finally becoming still. Lori gingerly approached it as Link removed his sword, taking a generous amount of blue fluid with it. "Is it...is it really dead?" she asked.

Skull Kid also approached, sniffing the air. "Smells like it to me," he said. "I mean, it looked like it was dead, but looks are a lot more deceiving than smells."

Just then, a rumbling groan sounded through the room. Oddly enough, it sounded much less like the sound of earth shifting and more like the sort of vocalization an old man would make when being awoken from his nap. "Who's making all that racket in my roots?" a deep voice rough with age asked sleepily. "Is that you, Skull Kid? Whatever are you doing in there?"

"Just takin' care of your pest problem with some friends!" Skull Kid called. "We're in the deep pit, mind giving us a hand out? Or a branch or something?"

"Not a problem," the voice said. "Give me just a moment."

Slowly, a long gnarled root snaked its way down through the opening of the pit, twisted in such a manner that it would be easy for someone to climb up. Link grabbed onto the root and began to climb, followed by Lori shortly after, and Skull Kid took the rear. "All right, everyone's on," he said. "Bring us out whenever you're ready!"

The root began to rise slightly faster than Link and Lori had been climbing, bring all three of them back to the original chamber they had entered through. Once there, they saw that more roots had been moved to just under an opening to create a ladder leading out of the tree, which they gladly took advantage of.

It was quite the noticeable contrast to go from the musty air within the Deku Tree's roots to the slightly cooler nighttime breeze outside. As they stepped out into the moonlight, they could see that the balls of light that had pestered them earlier—now clearly distinguishable to be a playful swarm of fairies—had gathered happily around the Deku Tree. The once motionless features of the tree's exterior were now moving subtly as he studied the pair of humans now before him. "So it is you who aided in ridding me of the parasite, then?" the Deku Tree asked, a warmth in his voice that indicated his question was rhetorical and that he knew the answer was yes. "My deepest of gratitude to you both. May I ask your names?"

"I'm Lori, and this is my brother Link," Lori told him.

"Lori and Link." The Deku Tree let out a relieved yet tired sigh. "Thank you very much for coming to my aid. With the parasite ailing me gone, I believe I shall return to my full strength in due time." The fairies' lights flashed excitedly, clearly elated with this news.

Link smiled. Though he had not known the Deku Tree before these events, he was glad to have helped out and was content knowing everything would be okay soon enough.

Lori then turned to Skull Kid. "All right, then, we did what you asked," Lori reminded him. "Now are you gonna spill the beans on where this amulet thingy is?"

Skull Kid grinned wide. "Lori-story, I'm about to spill a whole lot more than beans," he said with a giggle. He slammed the bottom of his lantern staff against the ground. A soft click was heard, and the green trinket that had been dangling on the bottom of the lantern proper dropped, being caught by its leather strap. Removing the amulet from its hiding place, Skull Kid handed it to Link and in a mock air of dignity said, "For displaying the courage to overcome a most difficult foe, not to mention a nasty-ass bug spider thing, I bestow upon the two of you the Amulet of Courage. Be sure to play nicely with it, don't forget the importance of sharing and all that."

The twins' mouths hung open in disbelief. "You mean you had the thing we were looking for on you the whole time?!" Lori shouted. "You could've just given it to us when we asked, but instead you sent us underground into a tree's roots to deal with a giant arachnid monster! We could've been killed by that thing down there, you know!"

Skull Kid rolled his eyes. "You just don't get it, Lori-lady," he sighed. "These amulets are never just _given_ away. You want one, you gotta _earn_ it. And helping someone you didn't know in his time of need even though it's a terrifying prospect counts as earning it in my book."

"I guess that makes sense," Lori said. Link merely shrugged; he supposed it made sense to him as well.

"Well, you kids better get your butts back to the other humans," Skull Kid said nonchalantly. "Oh, and to compensate for your terrible night vision...fairies?" He held up a hand, and the fairies buzzed into formation, laying out a path to light the way back to Fairhill. "Be good, kids!" he called after them. "Have fuuuun!"

"So, then," the Deku Tree said once Link and Lori were out of earshot. "You actually bargained the Amulet of Courage with them to save my life? I'm surprised you were able to trust them so readily with something like that, all things considering."

"Aw, hush, you old fart," Skull Kid giggled. "They're good kids."

"I certainly don't doubt that," the Deku Tree said. "You're just typically slow to trust any adult humans. What exactly do you see in them that made you change your mind?"

"Let's just say that boy's always given me good vibes. I get the feeling he's gonna be a big help to more than just us."

* * *

 **AN:** Forest shenanigans! With the end of the chapter, it's time for random character discussion! I like to think of this iteration of Skull Kid being a bit of a showman at times, hence the manner in which he introduced the Great Deku Tree. For those of you who have played or watched a playthrough of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (one of which I've been following faithfully for a while now), I want you to imagine Lori sounding like Nia. Honestly, that's partially the reason I imagine a lot of the characters here having British, Irish, and Scottish accents, that and Breath of the Wild's voice acting giving us several UK-locale-accented Zelda peeps. And SPEAKING of Lori, and the Zelda character she's meant to represent, LET ME JUST FREAK OUT ABOUT HYRULE WARRIORS FOR THE SWITCH OKAY BECAUSE I'LL FINALLY BE ABLE TO PLAY LINKLE'S TALE IN A DECENT MANNER AND SEE MY DAUGHTER'S STORY PROPER AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA and if you have to ask why I can't just play Legends, it's because I've heard it runs like absolute garbo on my 3DS model and I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have altered the control scheme from requiring two pairs of shoulder buttons. Y'know, to sell more ~New~ 3DS units.

As you can probably guess from my freaking out about the announcement of Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition being in this chapter's notes and not the previous, and thus this being written around the time of January 11th's Nintendo Direct Mini, I should let you guys know that I've been working on chapters 2, 3, and 4 (and possibly a little bit of 5) at roughly the same time as the events of the chapters are congruent. As such, if there were any reviews from chapter 2 including constructive criticism...well, their points might not get answered in this chapter or the next, at least in terms of story content. Just warnin' ya. Though I can address a couple points from PaintBrushJr's ch2 review right here!

1\. In all honesty, I wasn't entirely sure how to describe my vision for Zora's Domain properly. I was going for a mix of Breath of the Wild's version, Twilight Princess's version, and Zora Hall from Majora's Mask, and unfortunately didn't seem to get any of that. Thankfully I have plans to come back to this setting later, so maybe I can flesh it out more then?

2\. Oshana's initial gruffness is somewhat of a front—while generally a serious person due to the events that led up to her taking the throne, not to mention the issue going on with Lord Jabu-Jabu making her have a bad week, she's actually pretty nice once she softens a bit. She figured that since Zelda and Impa were trying to help, she might as well try and drop the attitude for a bit. I guess I could've done a better job of getting that across in the story proper rather than author's notes, hehe.

3\. Yeah, the Wizzrobe encounter was kind of rushed. I still need to work on that problem. And you know what the kicker is for that? A day or two after putting up ch2, I realized I could've brought back the Yiga from earlier, like introduce a Yiga mage or something, and probably made things a LOT more interesting. I'm kicking myself for not thinking of that sooner!

One final thing, I just remembered that Skull Kid's less rude nickname for the Great Deku Tree is also a nickname for acclaimed filmmaker and director Guillermo del Toro. No connection was intended, and while I'm not personally a fan of del Toro's works I have no disrespect toward him because I've heard he's a pretty swell guy.

—Jess aka PuppyLuver256


	4. The Man from the Shadows

He couldn't believe it. His very identity was marred from the day he was born, tarnished by the legacy of a man whose lust for power had run away with him.

The King of Evil.

The Demon King.

The Dark Lord.

All of these titles were given to one man who was almost universally reviled across all lands, the man who also happened to share the name that had been given to him.

Ganondorf.

Why had they tried to hide this from him? Was it out of some misguided wish to shield him from the wrongdoings of his namesake? Did they not think he would find out, that he wouldn't become the slightest bit interested in his people's history, or at the very least the stories of the century kings that came before him?! It certainly explained why he had often received disparaging looks from the older Gerudo in his childhood. Whatever the case, when he next saw the witches who had raised him, he was going to have some serious words with them.

" _What troubles our young prince so?_ "

Those witches always had either the best or worst sense of timing.

" _Your rage must have been great, to turn the archives to shambles like this._ "

He looked around. Sure enough, in his frustration he had tossed books and documents all about the room. He didn't care. He would clean up later if it was so important.

" _Why didn't you tell me? Why did you hide the deeds of my namesake from me?_ "

The witches gave each other knowing looks, then turned back to their royal charge.

" _We did not wish to upset you, young prince._ "

" _We knew that, given the sort of man you have become over the years, hearing the stories of the most infamous Gerudo king would cause you great distress._ "

Thinly-veiled excuses, he surmised.

" _Then why give me his name in the first place?_ "

The witches grinned, or at least as well as they could with quite a few teeth having fallen out from age.

" _So you could give the name new meaning._ "

" _You have been very vocal of your plans to bring prosperity to the Gerudo people._ "

" _You could change the meaning of the name 'Ganondorf' for the world._ "

" _No longer would the name be associated with the King of Evil, but perhaps the King of Bounty, or the King of the Golden Age._ "

He couldn't help but be suspicious of them at even the best of times. They may have been the ones to raise him, but he always had the feeling that they had their best interests in mind rather than his or the Gerudo people as a whole. Still, he had to admit that they had somewhat of a point.

* * *

The sun was high overhead by the time Ganondorf reached the outskirts of the Gerudo Desert. The trek from here to Gerudo Town (and, of course, the other way around) was a real pain sometimes, but he was well accustomed to it. He rode across the desert sands that were the near-constant sight of his home. It certainly wasn't Hyrule's bountiful greenery, but it was what he knew, and he and his people knew how to make its circumstances work for them.

He rode past some Hylian travelers on the path back to the town. He had no idea why they would come out here, either fools consumed by wanderlust or actual lust for his people, almost all of which were women. He really hoped it was the former, as he had no patience for anyone trying to make his people out to be mere eye candy, though considering one of the travelers in the group appeared to be a woman herself that was thankfully very likely. Regardless of their intentions, they couldn't help but watch in awe as he passed them, though that was more due to the fact that he just tended to have a commanding presence no matter what he did or said.

Deeper into the desert and closer to town, he came across a group of Gerudo who waved to him. He waved back, noting the presence of one individual in particular. "Back from your diplomatic venture, your highness?" she called to him, a certain snarky tone to her words.

"It was more than just a diplomatic visit, Urbosa," Ganondorf said with equal snark. "Zelda is a _friend_ , not just the ruler of an allied kingdom. Besides that, we were discussing something of grave importance. Seen any dragons flying overhead while I was gone?"

"Dragons?" Urbosa gave him a weird look. "Now that you mention it, I'm not entirely sure what it was, but I did see something large flying overhead yesterday afternoon near the Arbiter's Ruins. It could have been a dragon, could've just been a large bird. Either way, it _was_ out of the ordinary."

The Arbiter's Ruins... There _had_ been some odd lights coming from that place over the past week. Was that the sort of thing that dragons did?

"Don't tell me you're thinking of going there now?" Urbosa asked upon seeing his inquisitive expression. "Not that I'm opposing the idea of checking out a place where a dragon might lurk, of course, but you're only just getting back from a trip to Hyrule. You should at least rest up and stock up on supplies."

"I know, I know," Ganondorf said dismissively. "I'm not a fool."

"Never claimed you were a fool, just implying that you're more reckless than a king has any right to be."

"In any case, if I _were_ to make my way to the ruins, I had the same idea as you in that I'd better be well prepared for travel before doing so." He started to ride off, but paused and looked back at her with a grin. "Would you like to accompany me? I know you've been interested in exploring those ruins for quite some time."

"I can be ready in two days at the earliest." She laughed. "Well, I'd better be getting back to town. I suppose you're heading back yourself, so there's no reason not to go together."

"Sounds good to me."

And so they rode through the desert, Ganondorf on his horse and Urbosa utilizing a sand seal. It wasn't long before they found themselves near the gate to Gerudo Town, which was stationed by the typical guards who prevented the entry of men and the occasional woman who had proven to be a menace they were not willing to tolerate. "Sav'aaq, Lord Ganondorf, Lady Urbosa," one of the guards said.

"Sav'aaq," Ganondorf echoed. "Anything interesting happen while I was gone?"

"As a matter of fact, something did happen while you both were away," the other guard said. "There is a voe within."

"But I haven't set foot in town yet," Ganondorf said, though despite the joke he figured he could guess what she meant.

"A strange voe," the first guard said. "He was found wandering the desert, delirious from what is most likely heatstroke and covered in sunburns, and as Gerudo Town was the closest civilization the va'oe who found him was brought here."

"Must not have been the ones I encountered today," Urbosa said. "There weren't any non-Gerudo with them."

"I see," Ganondorf said. "How are the va'oe, by the way?"

"Thriving, from what we were told." The va'oe, Gerudo men who lived outside of the confines of the "only one man born every 100 years" trend, were known to roam the desert as opposed to living in the town out of respect of the custom of disallowing entry to all males aside from the one who would be their king, and often arrived at the gates to greet sisters and mothers outside city limits and to receive supplies from their families. "But this voe they found, he is...well, let's just say he's unlike anything we've ever seen, even without the circumstances of his ill prepared desert trek."

"It was agreed that we would permit his stay until he had time to properly recover, and then he would be sent off."

"Understandable," Ganondorf mused. His mind was still on this man that the va'oe had brought to the town. Unlike a lot of Gerudo, he had traveled quite extensively throughout the lands that were to the east of the desert, so he wasn't expecting to be too surprised. Still, the hesitant way they were describing this man got him a bit curious. "So where is he being kept at the moment?"

"In Aveil's clinic," the first guard told him. "He'll stick out like a sore thumb if he's not the only one there, and that won't be just because he'd be the only voe."

Ganondorf nodded and made his way into the town, with Urbosa following close behind. Truth be told, she was just as curious about this strange man as Ganondorf was, if only because the guards had kept referencing his strangeness as being a prominent quality. She also wanted to make sure he wouldn't cause any trouble.

* * *

They could hear the screaming from several buildings away. It sounded like the sort of sound a Rito or any variety of large bird would make, but if those sounds were coming from the strange man wouldn't the guards have just referred to him as a Rito if he was one? Concern etched in both their faces, they ran the rest of the way and entered the clinic.

Sure enough, Aveil was tending to a patient that, as the guards had told them, was unlike any person they had seen. Even taking into account the burns and blisters all over his exposed skin, he was quite the unusual sight. What skin hadn't been roasted by the sun was either inhumanly pale or a dull slate color, with red glowing patterns all over. His arms were twice as long as arms had the right to be on someone his height, and though he was curled in a near fetal position due to the pain he was experiencing, it was obvious that he would be very tall if standing upright. Most of that height would be his long torso, as his legs were shorter in contrast to the noodle-arms, ending off with tiny feet. The only thing that seemed normal, or at least understated, about him was the mop of hair on his head, auburn in color and rather messily-styled.

"Hold still, you hooting buffoon," Aveil said while bringing a needle close to one of the worse-looking blisters. "Your flailing about isn't going to make this any easier." She carefully lanced the blister, and as the liquid within seeped out the man let out another shrill bird-like cry. His face was just as strange as the rest of his body, with a flattened nose and large slits in the corners of his lips that stretched open with every scream, exposing his needle-like teeth. "I'll get some salve on that soon enough, try to remain calm," Aveil told him. She turned her attention to another woman who had been eyeing this man the whole time. "Farah, stop ogling the poor voe already!"

"He's actually quite beautiful if you look at him the right way," Farah said with a giggle not dissimilar to a schoolgirl. "I'd love to take you out sometime!"

"I keep _telling_ you, I'm not interes— _aaAAAHHH!_ " The man screamed once more as Aveil applied a salve to one of the larger burned areas on his shoulder. "Do you have _no_ concept of being gentle with these things?"

"Wounds of this type are going to be extremely sensitive," Aveil insisted. "I'm honestly trying my best to not irritate them any further." It was at this point when Ganondorf cleared his throat, alerting everyone in the room to his and Urbosa's arrival. "Oh, you're back," she said. "You can see that I'm rather busy at the moment, of course."

"So...what is this voe supposed to be, anyway?" Ganondorf asked.

"Right now, he's a _patient_ ," Aveil said sternly. "If anyone's still curious once he's fixed up, we can ask about his backstory then."

The man groaned. "What in the world is a 'voe', anyway?" he asked. "You people keep calling me that..."

"It's just our term for men," Urbosa told him. "Don't get your pants in a bunch about it, we call all men that if we don't know them."

The man was quiet for a brief moment, then said a single word. "Zant."

"Pardon?"

"You call men you don't know 'voe', right?" the man asked. "My name is Zant. I would prefer that you use it."

"All right, Zant," Ganondorf said. "You mind telling us where you came from and what you were doing out in the desert? Or is now a bad time?"

"I am from another world entirely," Zant said. "A world shrouded in darkness, as punishment for the actions of our ancestors, actions for which we are no longer responsible. My people grew complacent and accepting of this fate that we no longer deserved, but I was determined to finally set us free. So at great risk, I managed to break out. As for why I was wandering the desert..." He paused for a brief moment. "Well, I didn't know we would arrive in a desert upon escape, simple as that."

"We?" He raised an eyebrow. That was odd. The guards had only mentioned one person, hadn't they? Was there someone else out there, possibly suffering worse than Zant was now?

"There's another person?" Urbosa asked, putting Ganondorf's thoughts into speech before he could. "Do you know where they are? Are they still out there?"

"He should be here, if all my belongings were brought..." Zant looked all around the room, a heavy squint in his dimly glowing lamp-like eyes. "Where is he...?"

"You were the only one brought in," Aveil insisted.

Zant shook his head. "No, no, I mean the _sword_ ," he said. "Where is the sword? There's no reason for him to be too far away, unless you people are keeping the room dark on purpose so that I can't figure out that you're hiding him..."

This statement didn't make sense. The room wasn't dark at all; it was midday, and even though the windows were small there was enough natural light filtering in to be able to see decently well. "Um, are you...are you absolutely sure it's dark in here?" Ganondorf asked.

"I can see the lines," Zant said, "but other than that everything's near black."

"And this isn't normal for you, right?"

"Oh _please_ ," Zant said dismissively. "My world may be one of darkness, but it never becomes entirely devoid of light like this."

"But it isn't. There's plenty of light."

Zant's eyes widened in surprise. "That...that can't be right..." he said to himself in a hushed tone. "I thought it would fix itself after a few minutes..." He let out a loud, frustrated sigh. "Of all the rotten luck! I've finally broken the barrier to the realm of light and I only get to enjoy the briefest _glimpse_ of it!" He fell backward onto the cot in annoyance, but immediately jumped back up with a screech upon the cot's impact on his still sensitive burns.

"And I think that's enough from you right now," Aveil said. She placed a dampened cloth across Zant's shoulders, and while he did wince a bit, it did not appear to cause him enough pain for a more dramatic reaction. "That's also about the limit for what I can do for your burns without just giving them time, so in the meanwhile you should rest. Need anything else, food, a drink...?"

"I need to be left alone for a bit," was all Zant had to say.

"Alone time it is, then." Aveil stood up, placed the container of salve she had been using on a nearby shelf, and made her way to the door. "All right, everyone out. Even you, Lord Ganondorf, Lady Urbosa." As they exited the clinic, Aveil turned around to see Farah still ogling Zant with a dreamy look in her eyes. "And _especially_ you, Farah!" She was much harsher in her shooing of Farah, as it was much less nudging her to the door and more dragging her away by the ear.

Once they were out of the clinic, Ganondorf turned to Urbosa and asked, "So, what do you think of him?"

"Personally? I think he's a complete loon, even without the bird-screeching," Urbosa said derisively. "What was all that about a world of shadow? I think if there was another world that connected in the desert, we'd know about it."

"The va'oe said they found him coming from the west," Aveil added. "We all know there's nothing out there except more desert and the ruins."

"Speaking of the ruins," Ganondorf said, "Urbosa and I'll be setting off for that old place in a couple days on a totally unrelated mission. We should be getting ready for that once I've had some time to rest myself." He paused for a bit, deep in thought. "What's going to happen to Screamy Burnsides once he's all patched up?"

"We're sending him on his way, of course," Aveil said. "You know the only voe allowed in the town are you and the rare instance of special circumstances, and his circumstances extend until he's no longer in his current state."

"That so..."

* * *

The two days of rest and preparation passed by without incident. As Ganondorf made his final preparation, he couldn't help but get one more preemptive look at his destination before setting off. He climbed atop one of the taller buildings and gazed off to the west. Out there, the husk of an old stain upon the desert lay in shambles, a prison that had been built by Hylian forces to house the worst of their worst without regard to the Gerudo people's wishes. The desert had all but reclaimed it, and after a few more centuries and a few more kings it might be wiped from the western horizon. But it was there now, and it was presumably where a great dragon was making his home.

Urbosa was waiting for him at the town gate, her own preparations having been made. "You ready to go?" she asked.

"Absolutely."

As they made their way out of the town, Ganondorf took one more glance back and noticed three more people approaching the gate. Two of them were Gerudo guards, while the third was Zant, clearly no longer suffering from his injuries. He looked even taller when standing, probably having a good head or so of height over either Ganondorf or Urbosa (who were both fairly tall in their own right), and was dressed in a dark, heavy-looking hooded robe that made it quite clear why he had been found in such a state in the first place. There also appeared to be some sort of weapon strapped to his back, though considering he was facing them it was hard to get a good look at it. "Good to see you on your feet, Zant," Ganondorf said. "Uh, are you...are you sure that outfit's going to be comfortable in this climate?"

"These are literally the only clothes I brought with me," Zant said matter-of-factly. "And it just so happens that nothing that is carried in any of your town's shops fit my...unique frame. Nothing except for this, that is." He lowered the hood and brushed aside some of his hair to reveal a circlet inset with a sapphire. "The jeweler said it would protect the wearer from the heat regardless of whatever else they were wearing, so I thought it was a good idea."

"So you'll be okay, then," Ganondorf said. Now that he was getting another good look at Zant's face, he couldn't help but notice a rather prominent addition underneath the circlet. A long strip of cloth had been wrapped around his eyes, covering them and the burns that had been near them. "And how's the whole...y'know, eye thing?"

Zant grimaced. "That was actually my fault," he admitted. "When we first broke through, it was the first time I'd ever seen the real sun. I made the mistake of staring straight into it. I thought it would fix itself after a few minutes, but it's seeming more like somewhere from a few days to never."

Ganondorf thought for a bit. "You know, Zant, maybe it would be a good idea if you were to come with us for a bit," he said. "I mean, you're being kicked out of the town, and the sort of people that come to the desert with any reason to leave...well, let's just say they're not interested in helping out men. What do you say?"

"You can't be _serious!_ " Urbosa shouted. She pulled Ganondorf aside and whispered into his ear, "You wanna bring _this_ guy to somewhere that an ancient powerful artifact is located, really? I've got a gut feeling about him and it's a bad one."

"He probably wouldn't survive one day in the desert alone, even with that circlet," Ganondorf insisted. "Besides, he's armed, he likely won't slow us down."

"Maybe..." Urbosa turned to Zant and asked him, "Hey, you can use that sword, right?"

"You mean him?" Zant brought the sword around to his front, and they could now see it in its entirety. It was a massive great sword that was almost entirely black, with a cracked crystal attached to its hilt. Something about its appearance gave off an ominous feeling. "I'm not practiced in using this style of blade, no." Urbosa gave Ganondorf a look as if to say "I told you so", but after Zant had replaced the sinister sword on his back, he outstretched his arms and a pair of odd-looking scimitars appeared from under his sleeves in a literal puff of smoke. "These, on the other hand...I can do some _real_ damage with these."

* * *

And so the unorthodox traveling companion found himself seated behind Ganondorf on the back of Mas'ud, his long arms awkwardly wrapped around Ganondorf to keep himself from falling, with Urbosa and her sand seal speeding along beside them. While Urbosa kept her eyes and mind on the ruins ahead, Ganondorf was still intrigued by Zant's oddities and was asking him as many questions about his world and people as he could think of. "So yesterday you said something about still being able to see 'lines'," Ganondorf mused. "What exactly did you mean by that? What are these lines?"

"I guess you people aren't able to see them," Zant said. "Technically we don't 'see' them either, at least not with our eyes, the information just goes to the same part of the brain. They're sort of like the signature of living beings, everyone and everything has them to some degree. We Twili, we can sense them just fine, and it's a custom for us to have them imprinted on our skin to where they could be seen by anything with eyes. That's what the slits on my mouth are for, in case you were wondering."

That must have been what the glowing red markings all over Zant's torso were. "Just curious, what do the lines on Urbosa and me look like?" Ganondorf asked.

"You and the rest of the Gerudo share a lot of the same characteristics in your lines," Zant explained. "Swirling patterns that are very organic in their arrangement, gold in color, like loose sand in the wind."

"Interesting. And your world really is just twilight all the time?"

Zant did not respond to this question. He was looking this way and that, seemingly frantic. "There's something in the sand," he said urgently.

Ganondorf didn't like the sound of that. "What something?"

"I don't know, even if I could see it properly I wouldn't know what anything around here is," Zant said. "But there are lines moving in the sand, and they're closing in fast." He looked up at Urbosa and grimaced. "They either really like or really hate her seal."

Now that he was focusing on it, Ganondorf was starting to see movement in the sand heading toward Urbosa and her sand seal. "Urbosa, watch out!" he shouted.

Urbosa leapt off the shield she had been standing on in the nick of time, as a handful of green creatures that looked like a cross between slugs and cacti burst out of the sand toward her. She unsheathed her sword and slashed at one of the things, sending it flying in the opposite direction. "Damn leevers," she muttered. "Keep a look out for those things, shadow boy, they're a real pain in the rear!"

Zant let himself fall off the horse, brandishing his own blades. "I can take them on too," he said. "There can't be that...many..."

Ganondorf made Mas'ud turn around, as he certainly wasn't going to leave either his friend or their temporary companion to the leevers. "How many of them are there?" he asked Zant.

"The lines blur together, I can't figure it out properly," Zant said. "Three, five...nine or more..."

The sand before them rippled violently, and when the creatures burst out to greet them, there was both good news and bad news. The good news was that there were no more than three leevers. The bad news, on the other hand, was that they were all massive. "By the _gods_..." Ganondorf said, aghast. "Since when did the big ones gather like this?"

The three giant leevers began closing in on them, and a few smaller leevers popped out of the sand to join in. Ganondorf and Zant slashed at the larger ones closest to them, though it was unclear if their attacks were doing much of anything. "Stand back, boys!" Urbosa shouted. She snapped her fingers and in an instant, large lightning bolts struck the crowd of leevers and fried them to a crisp, leaving bits of their roasted carcasses and desert glass at the impact points.

"Bringing out the fury early in this endeavor, I see," Ganondorf said, unable to contain the awe he always felt when Urbosa unleashed her mastery over lightning. "I'm certainly not complaining!"

Suddenly one of the giant leevers lunged at Zant, throwing him up into the air and catching him in its waiting maw. Angry and frightened shouts of very colorful vocabulary in multiple languages rang out across the sands as the thing swallowed him whole. "Well, there goes that guy," Urbosa said with a grimace. "Doesn't matter how I felt about him earlier, that's no way for anyone to—"

The leever started to swell. It inflated until it burst, sending a shower of its green bodily fluids out in a disgusting blossom, and in the epicenter of the organic explosion was Zant, leftover bits of dark magic flecking off his misshapen hands and mingling with the dripping mess covering him. "I've had...just about _ENOUGH of this!_ " he screeched. He ran toward the remaining two leevers, scimitars held firmly in his outstretched hands, somehow screaming at a higher pitch than either of the Gerudo had heard from him yet. His scream kept going even as he began to spin wildly with his arms still outstretched, pirouetting around the leevers like a very sharp tornado and slicing them to bits. Even more green fluid was spilled as Zant eviscerated the leevers in his rage. He only stopped spinning and screaming a whole minute after the leevers were nothing more than a pile of messy bits scattered across the sand, when he fell to his knees and began panting heavily.

Ganondorf and Urbosa could do nothing but stare at him in shock. "Uh, Zant," Ganondorf finally said. "You got a little, uh, a little something on your... on your everything."

Zant's response was considerably delayed, as if his mind were elsewhere and he was just coming back to lucidity. "What are you talking about?" he asked in his daze. It was then that he noticed the fluids dripping off him, or rather some of it accidentally dripping into his mouth, and the apparently awful taste of it brought him back the rest of the way as he flailed about and made horrible noises of disgust. "Gods be damned, that was an ordeal..."

Urbosa nodded, still surprised by the sudden display of gratuitous violence. "Yeah, that's one way to put it, I guess."

"I'd better clean myself up, at least." Zant waved his hand slightly, and all the fluid and bits that were covering him disappeared entirely. "Shall we be going, then?"

"Uh, yeah, sure." Ganondorf and Urbosa shared a suspicious look, grateful that whatever Zant's secondary vision was didn't seem to pick up on facial expressions. This guy had just obliterated three giant leevers without so much as a thought, and it was true that one of them had attempted to eat him, but it was still a shock to see from someone who just two days prior they had seen laid out in a cot languishing from sunburns. And to top it all off, his reaction to the aftermath of it all once he wasn't covered in foul plant-slug gore was more understated than if they had just finished a nice picnic lunch.

They were starting to wonder if bringing him along was a good idea in the first place.

* * *

 **AN:** Ooooh the third of my faveys to be featured in this story is finally properly introduced and he's already causing trouble! Or, in his own words from the Ganon's Fury mode in Hyrule Warriors: "Such...beautiful...carnage..." God, I friggin' love Zant. Great villain, very interesting, and I'm not just saying this based on the two abridged series I'd watched (even though their portrayals gave me that initial push to liking him and thus diving into who he is in canon). Shame that, at the time of writing this, I have yet to fight him in his original game for myself. But I can at least attest to how fun he is to play as in Hyrule Warriors! Fun on a bun! All three of my faveys are buns covered in fun, honestly. ...and I'm thinking I should keep that metaphor on hand for the Fawful fic.

Hope the people who came up with the Twili heat sense/magic signature sense headcanon don't mind me borrowing it! I don't remember who came up with the idea but I've seen a couple people use it so I'm starting to think it's a bit of shared fanon now. And also, little secret for ya: _this chapter's been done since before chapter 2._ Yeah, I couldn't resist diving head-first into shenanigans featuring my favorite Zelda villain. But will he still be a villain in this story, or is this going to be like my take on Ganondorf? ...Let's just say you'll definitely find out next chapter.

—Jess aka PuppyLuver256


	5. The Amulet of Power

Everything was ready. He was in the right place, at least he thought he was. He had the blade, and he had everything he thought he might need in the other side. The weather, while incredibly unpleasant in normal circumstances, was perfect for what he was about to do. He just needed to wait for the right moment.

" _There you are._ "

He knew that voice all too well. He had come to far to allow himself to be detained again, but he might as well humor her before he set about truly breaking free. He turned. Sure enough, she was there, accompanied by a handful of guards.

" _Have you come to witness our newfound freedom?_ "

She glared at him, shaking her head in disbelief.

" _To think you would go this far...this is exactly the same sort of mentality that led to our ancestors being brought here in the first place!_ "

She was just like the rest of them. Just like her father. He had dealt with him already, but as for her...

" _Don't you think we've paid for our ancestors' mistakes for long enough? Frankly I'm sick of it. Not that I could expect you to understand._ "

He could feel it fast approaching, the hair on his neck standing on end as it closed in. There wasn't much time left—he took the blade from his back and lifted it high into the air.

 _KRZZZAP!_

The clouds split and lightning struck him where he stood—or rather, it struck the blade. It somehow held onto the voltage, and while the radiating power was unwieldy, it would not pass through the hilt to his body. This was exactly as they had planned. He held the blade before him, an unhinged smile crossing his lips.

" _Everyone, watch out!_ "

He swung the lightning-charged blade, but not towards the crowd. He had turned from them, instead slicing the open air beyond the cliff on which they stood. There was an uncomfortable pause as seemingly nothing happened. Then the air around them began to ripple. A large, glowing crack appeared in the horizon, right where the lightning-charged blade had struck. Gasps from the guards, ranging from confusion to abject terror, arose as the crack began to widen, pieces of the sky chipping away like shards of broken glass. Light poured through the gap, a light unlike anything they had ever seen. He was in complete and rapturous awe.

" _It's...It's beautiful! It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen!_ "

She covered her face with a hand, for the light was overpowering and stung her sensitive dark-adjusted eyes. The light was far easier on her than on her guards, who began to cry out in pain as their skin sizzled and burned in its rays. As he turned to face her, she could see that he was suffering the same fate as her guards. His wide, lamp-like eyes were ringed with burned flesh, and while it was hard to tell at the best of times, his gaze seemed unfocused.

" _Look, Midna! I have torn down our barrier to the outside! We can finally be free!_ "

He laughed, unable to contain his elation. Even as he turned back, approaching the bright portal he had messily created, his laugh never stopped until he was on the other side.

" _Zant...you crazy son of a fool._ "

* * *

Riding the rest of the way to the Arbiter's Ruins was an awkward, quiet one. The leever incident had put a bit of unease into Ganondorf and Urbosa, and it definitely wasn't due to a newfound fear of more leevers approaching them. Zant sat contently behind Ganondorf on the back of Mas'ud, either completely oblivious to the awkwardness of it all or just choosing not to acknowledge it. It was most likely the latter, as he clearly wasn't an idiot. "He hasn't tried talking to me for a long time," he finally said, more to himself than to either of the Gerudo.

"I offered you some water just a few minutes ago," Ganondorf said, confused.

"No, not you," Zant said dismissively. "The one who helped me escape." He reached behind him and gripped the hilt of the large blade on his back, letting out a heavy sigh. "Not that I don't mind your company, of course. You're both quite pleasant when giant beasts aren't trying to eat us alive, and you're not acting like I'm a lit fuse that would go off if you so much as breathed."

He was certainly perceptive, all right. "Didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable," Ganondorf said. "It was just...just kind of a shock, you know?"

"Oh, I know."

"We can save the chat for later," Urbosa said. "Looks like we're here. Good thing, too, Frelly was getting antsy."

Sure enough, the crumbling ruin of a large structure stood before them. Despite the general lack of remaining infrastructure, it was clear that the outer architecture was nothing like what was present in Gerudo Town, or anywhere else throughout the vast desert. It honestly stuck out like a sore thumb. "It somehow looks worse than it did the last time I've been here," Ganondorf said with a sneer.

"Mind describing it for certain people present?" Zant asked.

"Imagine something that symbolizes a disgusting action against your people, then picture it crumbling in on itself," Ganondorf said. "At least they were able to learn from their mistakes, it's just hard not to wish they'd never made the mistake in the first place."

Ganondorf and Urbosa found a comfortable place to hitch Mas'ud and Frelly, then the three of them made their way into the ruins. Urbosa held out a luminous stone to light their way as the natural light from outside faded within the ruin walls. "It's even worse than the old texts made it sound," Urbosa muttered, examining the ruins with a sense of morbid curiosity. "I'd bet it was atrocious when it was still occupied."

"So what was this place originally?" Zant asked. He was taking larger steps than normal, presumably to not trip over anything that his magic sense couldn't perceive, and it made him look kind of silly.

"This was a prison, to put it most simply," Ganondorf explained. "Not just any prison, though. Long ago, a Gerudo king attempted to wage war against the kingdom of Hyrule, his plans centering around getting in cozy with their king and then using that trust to get his hands on a powerful artifact called the Triforce. His plan was discovered, and the Hylians took action. Unfortunately their anger couldn't be quelled by just taking that king into custody, they also felt it necessary to subjugate all of the Gerudo, even those who had nothing to do with him or his plans. And so they built this prison, to house all the Gerudo who were unable to escape their wrath."

"We can at least be grateful that the past few generations of Hylians have tried to make reparations for this," Urbosa said, "but some things are just a bit too big to not at least remain a little bitter over."

Zant hung his head. "I completely understand that feeling."

They kept going through the darkness, the green light of the luminous stone casting an odd pallor on their faces. The lack of upkeep that generally comes with a ruined structure was noticeable. Sand was everywhere and on everything, to the point where in some areas it was nearly impossible to tell whether it was just a thin coating on the floor or concealing a deep pit. Ganondorf had to pull Zant away from walking straight into one of these possible pits on more than one occasion. As they went deeper into the structure, the more Hylian-style architecture gave way to construction and detailing more consistent with that of Gerudo style. No longer were there rusting Hylian crests, but Gerudo iconography and construction. "They built the prison on top of...what looks to be a temple of some kind," Urbosa said with a grimace. "That's just wrong on so many levels."

It was at that moment that Zant screamed. He ran ahead, flailing his arms in a panic. "Something was behind me!" he shouted. "It breathed right into my ear and I could _smell_ it, it smelled like _death!_ "

Ganondorf turned around, fully prepared to say it was likely just his imagination. However, before he could utter a single word, something tall and thin began to shamble out of the darkness. Its skin was shriveled and dry, at least where it could be seen through a smattering of deteriorating bandages, and it reeked of something that had long since expired. Worst of all was its face, or what could be seen through the bandages—heavily glazed, unfocused eyes and a gaping mouth with missing teeth. It groaned with a voice raspy from ages of lack of use, edging ever closer to the first living things it had come across in possibly years. "Well, this is unfortunate."

"What the hell is that thing?!" Urbosa shouted. Despite her shock, she had her scimitar out and was ready to fight whatever the undead thing approaching them was, as was Ganondorf.

"Could be a Gibdo, could be a Redead, hard to tell sometimes," Ganondorf said, backing away from the walking corpse. "The name doesn't matter, what matters is that we take it down."

The walking corpse, regardless of whatever term could be applied to it, made a sudden lurch toward them with its rotten arm outstretched. Ganondorf swung his left-hand sword at the arm, knocking it away, but something large and heavy smacked down beside him. He looked—apparently it had a gigantic sword in the other hand, and its death-induced lack of precision had made its swing barely miss. He leapt back from the strike, and turned to Urbosa, who while armed was still holding the luminous stone aloft. The corpse also turned, seemingly shielding its eyes from the light and groaning in either pain or annoyance at the soft green glow. It lumbered toward the light and the person holding it, its large blade dragging behind it.

"Can't Urbosa do that lightning attack she did earlier?" Zant sputtered in fright, cowering behind her. "It cleared out those leever things, surely it could do something against whatever that is!"

"We're several floors underground, the ceiling would block it," Urbosa said, parrying the thing's blade. "Besides, why aren't you doing anything to help?"

"I can't actually see it!" Zant shouted. "There's no lines! Dead things don't have lines!"

"You've got to be kidding me..."

The corpse let out an unearthly scream, something about the sound of it freezing all of them in place. Zant perked up. "I got a read on it!" He held his hand out straight ahead and told them, "Clear a path!" Ganondorf and Urbosa had no clue what he needed them to move for, but as it was as good an idea as any they jumped out of the way. It was a good thing they did, as a barrage of dark magic burst forth from Zant's outstretched hand and repeatedly struck the corpse, knocking it back and preventing it from advancing. As soon as the barrage had ceased, Urbosa rushed in and plunged her scimitar into the corpse's skull. It gave one last groan before it fell apart, whatever energy giving it mobility fading as its husk crumbled into a pile on the floor. "I got it, right?" Zant asked.

"You got it enough," Urbosa said. "Gotta admit, that was good going there."

Ganondorf sighed in relief. "We'd better get going," he said, putting away his swords. "There should be a path through here to get to one of the upper center sections."

"Yeah, about that," Urbosa said. "Why didn't we try that from the outside in the first place? I take it there was too much structural decay or something?"

"Something like that," Ganondorf said. "It's also the fact that this place is built rather oddly, by both Gerudo and Hylian standards."

Eventually they came to a somewhat eroded set of stairs. Thankfully the damage was not extensive enough to deteriorate its structural stability, so they climbed up without difficulty. It led them into a large antechamber, which was notably above-ground at least in part as there were small windows that allowed small beams of natural light to shine through. A large statue of a Gerudo woman with serpentine adornments stood against the far wall and was surrounded by torches, some of which were somehow still lit despite how long it must have been since anyone had set foot in the room or the ruins as a whole. "What is all this...?" Urbosa asked in awe. She of course knew what the statue represented in general, as did Ganondorf; the real question was what was this large symbol of their culture doing in a place like this, a place that had been built mainly to stamp them out in an area that was mostly Hylian in design, and what the torches were for.

"Mind if I take a stab at what it could be?" Zant asked. "I mean, obviously I can't figure it out without some description, but if there's a mechanism or something I've got some knowledge on that subject."

"You really think you'd be able to figure this out?" Ganondorf raised an eyebrow as he and Urbosa examined the mechanism proper. "Not that I'm necessarily doubting you, it's just the technology of our worlds might not exactly be similar."

Zant shrugged. "There's no harm in trying."

"Well, there's a statue of a woman as a centerpiece," Ganondorf said. "It's a figure in our mythology, the Goddess of Sand, and she's holding her hands out in a rather odd manner."

"Torches, we've got several torches," Urbosa added. She did a quick count of the torches and continued, "There's ten of them, some of them are lit and some aren't."

Zant put a hand to his chin, pondering the information he'd just been given. "It seems to me..." he said hesitantly, "what we have here might be a funyarinpa."

"A... funyarinpa?" Urbosa shook her head. "What in the world is that supposed to be?"

"Urbosa, _honestly_. I find it difficult to believe an intelligent woman such as yourself doesn't know what a funyarinpa is." Zant's tone was deadpan, but there was the hint of a playful smile on his lips that he couldn't entirely contain. "I thought everyone knew what that was, after all in some circles it's considered blasphemous to _not_ know."

"I've never heard of that thing either," Ganondorf added.

A light gasp could be heard as Zant put his hand to his face again. "You too, Ganondorf?" he asked, feigning surprise. "And here I thought the two of you were well-learned!"

Urbosa rolled her eyes. "You're messing with us, aren't you?"

"All right, in all seriousness, the amount of torches present is most likely important," Zant said. "It's possible that there are some sort of heat-sensitive activators embedded within them. You said there were ten of them total? And that the statue's hands had the fingers in weird positions? How many fingers does it have?"

"I think I see where you're going with this," Ganondorf said. He picked up a spend torch from the ground and touched it to one of the lit ones, transferring the flame. Looking up at the Goddess' hands, he lit a torch that would correspond with each raised finger, then blew out one of the pre-lit torches that corresponded with a lowered finger. Slowly the sand around them became disturbed as a rumbling sound could be heard. The wall behind the Goddess of Sand began to rise, and natural light in the colors of the setting sun shone through more and more as the opening grew taller. It stopped just as it had exceeded a head of height on Ganondorf. "That's actually pretty incredible," he mused. "Well then, we should see where this leads. You guys ready?"

"Yeah, let's get going," Urbosa said. She stepped forward to exit the room, then turned around to check on Zant. "You coming or what, shadow boy?"

"I'm not going through there," Zant said, shaking his head slightly. His head was angled so that, if he could see and his eyes were unobscured, he would be staring straight at where the wall once was. "I don't trust that thing whatsoever."

"What, because it's as old as, if not older than, Twinrova's ass-crack?" Ganondorf chuckled. The Twinrova may have been his surrogate mothers, but that didn't mean he couldn't take a jab at them every so often when they weren't around.

"I don't know who that is, but I'm going to assume that they're an elder and say partially," Zant replied. "But by all means, feel free to keep going if you wish, if anything happens I relinquish any possible responsibility."

Ganondorf shrugged, and he and Urbosa passed through the entryway. Nothing odd happened, despite Zant's misgivings, and they could tell they were now in what used to be the central hub of the entire complex. It looked as though this area was used as a sort of arena, being a rather open area surrounded on all sides by the walls. "Everything's cool," Ganondorf said, waving Zant over. "Come on, it's pretty much safe."

Zant hesitated, then cautiously stepped forward. Almost as soon as he was within five steps of the entryway, the entire wall slammed back down much faster than it had risen. Ganondorf and Urbosa ran back to the wall—their immediate exit gone, they were understandably panicking, and from the screams within they could tell that Zant was as well. "I _told_ you!" Zant's muffled voice shouted from the other side of the thick wall. "I knew it the whole time, it was magic-bugged and I just _knew_ it was going to pull something!"

"That will keep him out for long enough."

A loud, repeated sound of something large moving behind them caught their attention. They turned to see an enormous red dragon, flapping its wings to keep itself hovering in midair just above their heads. Flames licked the back of its head, billowing out like a fiery mane between its curled silvery horns, and its bright green eyes stared them down. Ganondorf had a feeling he knew who this was. "Are you the great dragon Volga?" he asked in a serious tone.

"That I am," Volga growled. "What business do you have here?"

"Kind of presumptuous for you to think you have more of a right to be here than either of us," Urbosa said under her breath.

"This location has historical significance to my people, the Gerudo," Ganondorf told Volga. "I am Ganondorf, the Gerudo people's current king. We have actually come here due to hearing tell that you had recently arrived. I should be asking what brought you here, in all fairness."

"Very well." Volga lowered himself, landing surprisingly softly for something so large. As he did so. Ganondorf noticed something glittering on his long neck. "Quite recently I had sensed a disturbance in the fabric between worlds, one of great significance. I'm sure my compatriots in the waters and the trees have sensed it as well, however as one is not very mobile and the other doesn't take things as seriously as the rest of us, I took the initiative to investigate."

A disturbance between the fabric between worlds... Both Ganondorf and Urbosa had a feeling they knew just what he was talking about.

"Now that I have explained my presence here," Volga said, "I believe I should rephrase my initial question now that you have explained yourselves. What business do you have with _me?_ "

"You are the keeper of the Amulet of Power, correct?" Ganondorf asked. "A friend of mine, the soon-to-be-crowned queen of Hyrule, believes the Amulets of the Goddesses can be used to prevent a darkness that she has had visions of for some time. On behalf of Zelda, I request that you bequeath it to us, or at least allow us to borrow it, in order to prevent this approaching catastrophe."

For a while, Volga said nothing. Then he let loose a sort of growling laugh, throwing his head back a bit as he did so. "Many fools have asked for the Amulet," he said, amused. "Even if I could, I would not just hand it over to anyone without the proper circumstances."

"And that would be?"

"One on one combat." Volga spread his wings in a manner akin to a peacock fanning out its tail. "To the victor will go the Amulet, just as it was originally bestowed to me! That is the way one proves themself worthy of the Amulet of Power!"

Ganondorf nodded. "I'm willing to take on that challenge," he said. "I'll face you."

"Have fun fighting the big, scary dragon, then," Urbosa said with a light laugh. "At least he didn't say anything about fighting to the death."

"I have no intention of making this a death match," Volga growled approvingly. "A test of skill, and nothing more. Though the fight would hardly be fair for the challenger given my current form." He shook his head, then took on a two-legged stance. His large, impressive form began to shrink as scales became tough armor and the crown of his head became a helmet. He now had the form of a man, and in his hand was a spear that resembled his draconic form's clawed hand. "This should put us on more even ground."

Ganondorf drew his swords, prepared for combat just as Volga was. The setting sun was a perfect backdrop to the impending battle. Spinning the spear in his hand as though loosening up in this form due to a lack of regular use, Volga let out a mighty yell and lunged at Ganondorf. A quick dodge and he was able to deflect the oncoming spear with his off-hand sword, and Volga's movements were just as quick in evading his own attack. He leapt back, as did Volga, to ready himself for a more proper strike.

Both swords at his sides, Ganondorf ran toward Volga with a yell of his own. A sudden impact to the side of his head sent him reeling—he looked back at Volga and saw that, if only briefly, his hand had reverted back to a dragon's claw, and that had been what raked across his face. He felt a small trickling of blood where the blow had connected, but it wasn't serious enough to worry too much about. "Is that all you've got?" Ganondorf declared. He struck back—right on the arm that had clawed his face. Volga made a move with his spear, but Ganondorf saw it coming this time, crossing his swords in front of him and blocking the spear.

The crossed swords were unflinching from the spear and the strength being placed behind it. Volga smirked. "You fight well, for a human."

"You're not bad yourself," Ganondorf said, "considering you're usually a lot bigger." With a grunt, he pushed Volga back, causing him to stumble backward a bit. "Don't you think it's time to start taking me seriously?"

"Indeed." Volga inhaled deeply, and upon the exhalation he spewed forth a torrent of flame. The fire came at Ganondorf faster than it looked like it should, and even though he managed to quickly roll out of the way, it didn't stop the flame from making contact with his arm.

As Ganondorf tried to put out the flame, he noticed Urbosa on the sidelines. She was holding her hand in the air, and he knew what she was readying herself to do. "What do you think you're doing?!" he shouted.

"I'm just staying prepared in case you need me!" Urbosa called back.

Ganondorf shook his head. "As much as I appreciate the thought, he said _one on one!_ "

"Fine..." Urbosa lowered her hand, disappointed that she wouldn't get to bring down any lightning.

In the time that Ganondorf had taken his attention away from the fight, Volga had lit his spear ablaze with his own fire breath. He lunged at Ganondorf, weapon at the ready, but this time Ganondorf could see it coming. He slashed at Volga's dragon-arm, knocking him off-balance. In his shock, Volga didn't have time to brace himself from another slash. His grip on his spear loosened as he fell backward, and it clattered to the ground just as its user landed beside it. As if to cement the victory, Ganondorf lightly placed his foot upon his opponent's chest. "I'd say the victor's pretty clear, wouldn't you?" he said smugly.

"It would appear so," Volga said. "That was among the more exhilarating battles I've had in quite a while."

"Just 'among'?" Ganondorf chuckled, taking his foot off of Volga. "Why not the most?"

"You'd be surprised how well someone can fight despite certain circumstances leading you to believe otherwise." Volga stood, then carefully removed the Amulet from his neck. "Here. Claim your well-earned prize."

Ganondorf put his swords away and held out his hand, letting Volga drop the amber jewel and its leather strap into his open palm. "Thank you," he said, putting the Amulet in his pocket. "I will make sure this is put to good use, for the right reasons."

"See to it that you do," Volga said, "and be sure to keep it away from the otherworldly trespasser behind that stone wall once I reopen it."

"What, shadow boy?" Urbosa asked. "Yeah, he's a bit of a loon, but what danger would him getting the Amulet be?"

Volga thought for a bit, then responded with a shrug. "I can't claim to know for certain, as the future is not something I can lay claim to," he replied. "However, I could smell his insidious intent as soon as that wall first opened. There is blood on his hands and murder in his heart, and if either one of them got ahold of something as powerful as the Amulets may truly be, nothing good would come of it." Before Ganondorf could ask for clarification, he explained, "Yes, I said 'either of them'. He has had a companion with him for the entire time he's been in this world, sleeping in a form one would not expect."

Ganondorf and Urbosa exchanged worried looks. "The sword," they said in near unison.

They turned back to Volga, who had reverted into his draconic form. "Now then," he said, "as I imagine an alternate path of travel would be rather inconvenient for those without flight, I shall lift the wall once more and grant you leave. You would do well to keep my words of warning in mind."

Volga spread his wings, climbed on top of a crumbling pillar, and flew off with a proud roar. Almost as soon as he passed over the outer wall, the passage they had come through opened again and Zant fell forward into the open area, presumably having been trying to listen to the battle through the stone or otherwise leaning against it. "By the gods, I thought that thing would never open," he said as he scrambled to his feet. "So anyway, did everything go fine? I thought I heard sounds of combat and..." He paused, spinning around in an attempt to get his bearings of the area. "Wait a minute... this is... this is where I first broke through, isn't it..."

Ganondorf wasn't sure how to respond to Zant, not after what Volga had said. It was, of course, entirely possible that the dragon was lying, yet at the same time he had given no reason to not believe him and there was definitely something off about Zant the more that he thought about his behavior during the short time he had known him. "Yeah, there was a fight," he said hesitantly. "We got through it all right, obviously."

"That's good, that's... that's very good," Zant said. There was no way he wasn't noticing the newly developing tension in this situation. "And...might I ask what else happened while we were separated?"

How exactly was one supposed to confront someone who was barely an acquaintance on possible murder? How did you bring up that sort of thing without ruining someone's idea of your trust in them at best, or setting them off to repeat their actions at worst? As Ganondorf debated how to best word what he wanted to ask, Urbosa decided to come right out and say it. "You ever murder someone, shadow boy?" she asked, as bluntly as one could ask such a thing.

Immediately, Zant became eerily quiet. If the tension wasn't palpable before, it had become so thick that it could be cut with any one of their swords. "What would prompt you to ask such a question?" Zant retorted, his words so carefully measured as to betray the real answer.

"Yes or no, Zant," Urbosa said sternly. "It's one of the most simple questions in the world to answer. Yes. Or. No."

"I have never killed anyone or anything that has not been detrimental to the present situation," Zant said calmly, though the pitch of his voice was starting to rise. "I've killed a reanimated corpse that threatened to make us suffer its same fate. I've sliced apart desert creatures that nearly consumed me. And yes, I have killed a living man, a man who through his complacency would allow his people to continue suffering a caged existence and who had just passed his position to a woman who would fall in line _with the exact same disgusting way of thinking!_ " His misshapen hands were balled into fists, clenching tighter as his rage built. "Who wouldn't want to take a stab at regicide knowing he could have saved _everyone_ had the fool king given _him_ the throne rather than his _equally foolish sister!_ "

Zant laughed; a cold high-pitched laugh that completely contrasted with the normal tone of his speaking voice. He capped of his laughing with a deep sigh, then held out his hand. "Now then, why don't you just let me have whatever that bright light in your pocket is?" he asked innocently. "That might be just the thing I need to uphold my end of the bargain with the one who helped me escape."

"Damn," Ganondorf muttered. "You're not getting the Amulet, Zant. I need it to help some friends."

"It's an amulet, is it?" Zant mused. "That _does_ sound like the sort of artifact that would hold a lot of power..." He held out his hands and his scimitars materialized in each one. "Then why don't I just _take it!_ "

Without any sort of warning, he lunged at Ganondorf. He hadn't realized it until then that the battle with Volga had actually taken a lot out of him, in terms of both energy and the obvious wounds to his arm and face, and was unable to dodge in time. Zant collided with him, slashing him across the chest in the process, and he let out a yell of pain. The Amulet rolled out of his pocket and onto the ground, and Zant scrambled to pick it up. "Yes..." he said upon getting his hands on the Amulet, more to himself than either of the Gerudo with him. "This is _just_ what we need!" He stood up, but felt cold steel upon the back of his neck. "I can understand you're upset with my actions," Zant said in a matter-of-fact tone. "But I've got what I need. The violence can end here."

Urbosa didn't remove her scimitar from its placement on Zant's neck. "You won't be getting away with this," she snarled. "You might have been able to escape justice in your world, but if Ganondorf dies then your blood will be joining his on the sand before you."

"Oh _please_ ," Zant said. "There's no way that wound was fatal. Get him patched up in time and he'll live." He smiled. "And besides, do you really feel that sword is going to keep me here?"

"What the _hell_ do you mean by that?!" Urbosa pressed the sword in just a bit closer, with every intent to do him in should he make a wrong move.

"Nothing much," Zant said. "Just a little twilight magic."

At once, he disappeared in a puff of smoke. Confused, Urbosa glanced around in a panic before spying Zant now standing atop a crumbling pillar. He had a wide grin on his face, which made the slits at the corners of his mouth more pronounced, and waved the Amulet around in his hand in a taunting manner before disappearing again. Urbosa cursed under her breath, but there were more pressing matters to attend to. She rushed over to Ganondorf, taking off her cloth belt and pressing it against his chest to stop the bleeding. "Just hang in there, Gan," she said breathlessly. "It doesn't look too deep, but we'll have to get back to town and get it looked at properly."

"That bastard..." Ganondorf groaned. "We have to... get the Amulet back..."

"Let's focus on keeping you alive for now," Urbosa said. "There's no telling where he's gone." With the blood flow stemmed, she tied her belt around Ganondorf's chest to act as a makeshift bandage, then helped him to his feet as they made their way out of the ruins.

* * *

By the time they had gotten out of the ruins, night had well and truly fallen. Mas'ud and Frelly were somehow still where they had left them, and while Urbosa still had to help Ganondorf onto his steed, it was not as difficult as either of them had initially believed it would be. "Do you think you can get back to town?" Urbosa asked him.

"If I go at a steady pace," Ganondorf reassured her. "I should be fine. Mas'ud has never done me wrong."

"If you say so." Urbosa gave him a look of concern. "Be careful, all right? We need you, both as a leader and a friend. Well, that last one's obviously a bit more personal."

And with that, they both took off. Reassured by Ganondorf's improved condition, Urbosa had no qualms with allowing Frelly to go full speed. Ganondorf was taking his own advice and had instructed Mas'ud to remain at a steady pace, and while the horse was raring to go, he could tell that going slower was important for some reason. As they made their way across the dunes, Ganondorf could swear that he saw something moving across the night sky. Two dark blob-like shapes blotted out and relit the stars as they zoomed overhead, and while he couldn't make them out very clearly, he had a feeling he knew exactly who they were.

The dark shapes turned in midair and lowered, approaching him with great speed. Sure enough, they were Koume and Kotake, twin witches who had raised Ganondorf from an early age, having flown through the sky on matching broomsticks. "Well, well, well," Kotake said once the two had reached him. "What has happened to our dear king? He looks hurt, doesn't he, Koume?"

"He certainly does, Kotake," Koume said with a light cackle. "Our poor king, our poor son, he has gotten himself injured somehow." She tutted at this. "A king must be more careful with his life."

"If you're not going to help me, you can leave me be," Ganondorf said. "It's nothing serious, I just need to get to town and I'll be fine."

"But why must you get to town when our temple is much closer?" Kotake offered. "We could take care of your wounds there, most certainly."

"No offense, but I think I would rather not deal with magic at the moment." A burn, facial scratches, and a large chest gash could definitely do with some magic healing, that was true. Ganondorf was well familiar with the track record of his mothers' magics, however, and healing was not quite among their typical fare.

"Oh, we insist."

Koume snapped her fingers, and almost instantly Ganondorf's vision started to go dark. He felt himself feeling much more tired than he had been, his mind was swimming and he could no longer keep proper balance on the saddle. He slid off of Mas'ud and landed in the sand, and as he lost consciousness he could still hear the sinister cackling of his mothers.

* * *

 **AN:** I've been waiting to write this part for so long! Turns out that, despite him being one of my faveys, I'm _not_ giving Zant the same treatment in this story as Ganondorf! Mainly because he's in my favey rank specifically _because_ of how well I feel he works as a villain. That, and that big sword's not exactly a neutral presence in this business if you recall from the intro to chapter 1, so it may be a bit of a Bad Influence. Though he might've just been badly influencing himself in the first place, how else would he have gotten himself chained up in a room with that thing. This chapter also is the first time I'm trying a new technique to help writing fight scenes: storyboarding! Well, more like some sort of flow sketch, but it serves the same technical purpose that storyboarding does. I've noticed I tend to work better visually, so I figure this might help. I might post the results on my Tumblr if you're interested in seeing how I visualized it, but be warned that it's very VERY simple stick figure sketches as I wanna save my good art skill for concepts and finished pieces. And another thing I'm taking into account: it helps keep the pacing even when I stop flippin' worrying about document length.

And thus concludes the first major chunk of this story. Like I mentioned in the notes of chapter 2, I'm kinda molding this story's plot structure on the typical Zelda game, at least those from Link to the Past (or in my case Ocarina of Time, not the biggest fan of Link to the Past but to each their own) and onward to pre-Breath of the Wild. We're getting into the REALLY good stuff soon. Can't wait! ...unfortunately we're gonna have to, because I've had to replace my computer and things have been...not great. I can't use a tablet properly on this machine (curse you Windows Ink and not allowing my tablet drivers to be installed!), and considering I've been drawing a thumbnail for each chapter for the DA uploads, that's a Big Deal. So SiT will be going on a hiatus until then. Sorry, but that's how it has to be.

A quick addendum: my sincerest apologies for the out-of-left-field inclusion of a dumb meme from an unrelated video game franchise of a completely different genre shoehorned into this story, it was just a funny moment that wormed its way into my brain while planning stuff out for this section and it _would not leave_. I tried to make it as brief as possible to compensate, as the scene it's referencing is in itself fairly brief so it wouldn't make sense for the joke to go on longer than it did in its source material.

—Jess aka PuppyLuver256


	6. What Is to Come

The twinkling stars in the night sky and the brilliant moon among them were a welcome view to eyes that had until then only ever seen the clouds of twilight. She was grateful that they had crossed the barrier at this time and not when the sunlight was at its strongest. Of course, she was more grateful for the recent discovery of a native protection that would come into play whenever the sun decided to rise.

" _So, this is the world of light. No denying what he said, it is truly beautiful, or at least the sky is._ "

She turned back, seeing that her companion had made it through safely.

" _What do you think of this place, Luzen?_ "

They didn't answer right away, instead deciding to take the time to examine their surroundings. They looked puzzled.

" _This looks like the remnants of a prison. Your highness, are you sure this is where we should be?_ "

She laughed.

" _There's no way this is all there is. Besides, what else would be beyond the barrier? What else would he be so desperate to break through for?_ "

Her expression grew serious.

" _We'll have to find a way to reach wherever someone in power would be located. They need to be warned._ "

* * *

"Well, my business is concluded here," the postman said, clearly proud of a job well done. "Onward to mail!" He gave a small salute, then turned on his heel and jogged out of the castle gate.

Zelda opened the letter as she made her way back inside the castle. The handwriting gave an indication that the letter's writer had put their pen to paper in quite a hasty manner, regardless of whether or not they had really needed to write as fast as they had done. It was no surprise to her who the letter's writer was, of course, given that not only did she recognize the handwriting in the first place but it was postmarked as having been sent from the Faron province. Having made her way to a somewhat private room, Zelda removed the letter from the envelope in its entirety and began to read.

" _Dear Zelda,_

 _I'm writing to let you know that we were able to find and obtain the Amulet of Courage. Somehow it was both fairly difficult and surprisingly easy, especially with the help of an old friend. If you'd like, I could tell you more about it at another time. Not literally, most likely, but I did write down the events in a journal I've been keeping lately and I would be more than willing to allow you to read at least that part of it._

 _So how goes your search for the Amulet of Wisdom? Have you found it yet? What's Zora's Domain like? I've never been myself, they're not too keen on Pop's work so there's never been a need for me to make a delivery there. Have you heard anything from Ganondorf about his search? I know news has a longer way to travel from the desert to the castle than from Fairhill, but there's no harm in checking._

 _Hope to see you again soon._

— _Link_ "

A warm smile spread on Zelda's face. It was always good to hear from Link, if only metaphorically most of the time, and this was especially good news indeed. She would have to let him know about her success as well, although his inquiry about Ganondorf did get her thinking about their mutual desert king friend. What if the dragon had decided that Ganondorf did not deserve to receive the Amulet of Power? If that were the case...

A knock at the door brought her out of her thoughts. She folded Link's letter carefully and placed it on the table. "Come in," she told whoever was on the other side.

The door opened, and Impa entered, a look of concerned bemusement on her face. "Forgive me for intruding, Your Highness, but you have a visitor."

"A visitor?" Zelda repeated. "Who is it, exactly?" She hoped it was Link with his Amulet, or Ganondorf with either news on the Amulet he had been asked to retrieve or the object itself.

"That's a bit of a complicated answer," Impa said hesitantly. "It's a woman who claims to be royalty, but I've never seen anyone like her before so I have no idea what land she would rule. She insisted on meeting with Hyrule's current leader, and I don't think I need to remind you who that is."

"I don't know if that's such a good idea at the moment," Zelda said.

"She said it was urgent," Impa continued, "and that the information she had to share would concern the state of Hyrule just as much as it does her own homeland."

"Well then," Zelda said, standing up from her chair and straightening her skirt, "if it really is as urgent as she believes, I should at least meet with her to try and ease her concerns."

* * *

The two people standing before her were unlike anyone she had ever seen. They had the vague shape of Hylians, but the differences were immediately obvious to anyone able to give them more than just a passing glance. Unnaturally pale skin as though they hadn't seen sunlight all their lives, at least in the places that weren't covered a dark skin-tight material, and all across their bodies were runes that glowed an eerie blue-green hue. One of them, the one who seemed a bit taller if by the volume of their hair alone, glanced around the throne room nervously with their bright pink eyes, before the second placed a reassuring hand on the first's arm. This second person was clearly of some importance, wearing a dark robe with intricate embroidered patterns, a highly detailed diadem woven through her hair and a hole in the top of the robe's hood. She turned her attention to Zelda and smirked. "I take it that you are the queen Zelda, yes?" she asked, an unfamiliar accent present in her words.

"Yes, I am, or at least I will be once the coronation happens," Zelda said. "May I ask your name and business here?"

"Ah yes, of course," The robed woman smiled. "I am Midna, current ruler of the Twilight Realm, in a situation similar to yourself in that I might as well be a queen in all but name at present. And this..." (she motioned to the person at her side) "...is my attendant and dear friend Luzen. We have come to this world because I have a message of grave importance to impart upon this world's leaders. The person in charge of the area we came out in was unavailable when we arrived there, so it only made sense to move on to whoever could be reached soonest."

"And what is this important message, Midna?" Zelda asked.

"A warning, and I can only hope we have arrived in time to deliver it," Midna replied. "Until a few days ago, your world and the Twilight Realm were separated by an impenetrable barrier. I don't know how well your people may have documented the events that led to this, but to make a long story short our ancestors upset whatever forces make this world tick and they were sealed away for their transgressions, which in turn led to us existing. It may not be the best life, but we're by and large content with it."

She paused, as if the rest of her message was difficult to say. Luzen looked concerned. "Hey, if you need me to...if you need me to finish telling what happened, I can..."

"Thank you, but I'll be fine." Midna sighed and continued. "Recently, one of our people had committed a vile act the likes of which are extremely rare for us, and when he was caught in the middle of this atrocity, he was taken to prison with little resistance. We thought that was that. But he must have found something locked up with him, an oddly-shaped sword, and by using this sword he broke through the barrier. I have no idea what his plans are aside from his misguided idea of 'liberating' us into a world bathed in a light that fries our very skin if the utmost precaution isn't taken, but regardless, this man is a _murderer_." Her expression became fierce. "We must find him and bring him back into custody, if only to make sure he cannot repeat his actions."

"In that case, we will do all we can to aid in finding this man and to prevent him from bringing harm to anyone else," Zelda said with a nod. "What is his name?"

"The man in question is named Zant. And what makes this all the more difficult is that Zant isn't just the only murderer we've known of for longer than I have been alive, but he is also my brother."

* * *

The cool, fragrant breeze was a nice change from the hot air Zant had been surrounded by a mere day before. He was unsure of what time of day it was for obvious reasons, as despite the more noticeable cycle of day and night that this world had compared to his own, the sun didn't exactly have lines that he could detect. Something about the lines he was able to see, however, gave him the impression of a wooded area. The way they snaked upward and branched out was definitely indicative of trees, and rather tall ones at that. Not to mention he could feel the grass in his hand as he was sat upon the ground, so even if the tree lines weren't actually attached to trees he at least knew that he was no longer in the desert and was surrounded by at least some type of consistent vegetation.

"I shouldn't just be sitting around here," he murmured to himself. "I need to figure out how to use this." Zant took the Amulet in his hand and fiddled around with it in his misshapen fingers, admiring the brilliant energy that he hoped was something that only he could see. Then again, he hadn't seen any movement in the lines aside from possibly wildlife, so he doubted there were any people around who could potentially steal it.

He stood, removing the large sword from his back and holding it in the hand that wasn't currently occupied by the Amulet. "What if I just..." He slipped the Amulet around the hilt of the sword, wrapping its strap around a few times to keep it in place. Nothing seemed to change about either object. "Hmm...maybe you have to activate it somehow." He lightly tapped the Amulet with a finger, sending a spark of magic through it. His magic's dark nature did nothing to diminish the Amulet's light, and some of it even seemed to ripple off the thing and through the sword. It vibrated a bit, and for the briefest of moments Zant thought it had worked, but nothing more. Gritting his teeth, he thrust the sword into the ground and threw a barrage of magic at the attached Amulet, light radiating from it with every strike. Still nothing. His options exhausted, he pulled the sword back out of its place in the dirt and threw it as far as he could with a loud screech of frustration. "Why does _everything_ I do end up like this?!" he shouted. "Every _time_ I think I'm finally making headway in _anything_ , it all falls apart with the most _ridiculous–_ "

"Now, now, is that any way to treat the one who broke you free from that hell hole?"

Zant let out a small gasp, turning around to face the discarded sword. He knew that voice. "You're speaking again," he said, the corners of his mouth slowly forming a light smile. "Does that mean it actually worked?"

"Not quite," the sword said flippantly. "I still don't have enough energy to manifest in a different form. It was at least enough to restore what I'd lost from that initial break."

Zant shrugged. "Well, that's better than nothing, at least." He gently picked the sword up off the ground and brushed off some dirt that had been scattered onto it from its impact. "So, how exactly do you suppose I should go about this?" he asked. "Fulfilling my end of the bargain, as it were?"

"I'm not entirely sure myself, but I get a feeling that it's going to end up requiring at least a _little_ more bloodshed." The sword laughed. "Not that that's been an issue for you so far, of course! Not at all."

"Regardless of how much or how little is necessary, we should try to be careful," Zant said. "I seriously doubt our former captors aren't eventually going to come after us, or at least after me, and a body trail that's too long would cause problems."

"Fair point," the sword said with a sigh. "Especially considering I've got a read on some sort of village nearby."

Zant was intrigued. "You can sense such things, then?"

"It's not an ability I put too much stock in, but yes, it's there."

"Then you can probably find whatever it is you need," Zant said, "and I'll take you to it."

"Sounds like a plan." If the sword had a face, it would probably be smirking.

Zant put the sword on his back and made to start walking, but hesitated. "You know, it's only just occurred to me that we've spent all this time together and in the time you've been conscious I've never gotten your name."

"I _really_ haven't introduced myself by now?" The sword chuckled. "How silly of me. I guess I was too caught up in the action of it all."

"Now is as good a time as any, then."

"It's Ghirahim."

* * *

Ganondorf slowly opened his eyes, a sort of hazy feeling still present in his brain. He groaned and tried to shake his head to clear this feeling away, but found that he could barely move. He was definitely on some sort of hard surface, like a table or something, and his hands and feet felt as though they were restrained. "What..." he murmured to himself. "What's going on?"

"Our dear king is coming around!"

A shrill laugh following those words let Ganondorf know exactly who was holding him captive. The Twinrova. That likely meant they were in the Spirit Temple. But why was he being held like this?

As if on cue, Koume's face came into view above his. "Are you quite comfortable, Lord Ganondorf?" she asked, grinning with her aged and missing teeth in full view.

"What am I doing here...?" Ganondorf asked, the haze in his mind dulling his ability to properly express his rage. "Why...why did you...?"

"It's about time for you to be brought to your full potential," Kotake said, glee present in her tone. "In fact, this has been long overdue."

"Long overdue...? What are you talking about?"

"You need to understand something, Lord Ganondorf," Koume said. "You have been raised to be the king of our people, that much is true. However, what we have had in mind for you is something much grander, something we have always known that you would not cooperate with willingly." As his mind was clearing, Ganondorf could swear he was hearing something different from her words. Contempt?

"We had to restrain you for that reason, as well as for your own safety," Kotake added. "And ours too, of course. After all, if we're going to resurrect our old master through you, we'd hate for you to misuse that power before he can take control!"

That was all it took to bring Ganondorf to full awareness. "Resurrect?" he gasped. "What the hell does that mean?!"

"Exactly what it sounds like," Koume told him. "We intend to bring the demon king back to life, and what better vessel for the darkest of Gerudo royalty than what basically is a younger version of himself?"

"You told me I shared his name to overshadow his legacy!" Ganondorf shouted. "All these years, you've been filling my head with lies!"

The Twinrova merely laughed. They moved to Ganondorf's sides, a glint of light reflecting off something small visible in a sleeve of each of their robes. He tried to free himself, but the restraints that were keeping him on the table were unyielding, not to mention that he was still weak from whatever magic they had used on him. A flash of steel at his sides and a searing pain shot through both arms, causing him to cry out from the agony. He felt liquid trickling down his arms. Something solid pressed against him, which he could only assume was to collect what he believed was his now freely flowing blood.

As the Twinrova moved away from him and out of sight, Ganondorf could swear he heard a sort of scratching sound behind him over his own ragged breaths. The scratching soon stopped, followed by a slight clunk of something dropping to the floor. So his mind wasn't playing tricks on him after all.

"Ganondorf? That you?"

The whispered voice of Urbosa was like music to his ears. He coughed a bit, aware that the Twinrova had begun chanting in a language he wasn't familiar with. They were preoccupied, they wouldn't notice anything. "Urbosa..." he murmured weakly. "What are you...doing here?"

"Rescuing you, obviously," Urbosa said. "Saw those witches flying off with you, still don't trust 'em and it looks like I was right. Just hang on..."

A few soft thuds against the wall behind him, and he heard some more bits of old brick crumble and drop. Just as it sounded like good progress was being made, the sounds stopped. Ganondorf was about to ask why Urbosa had stopped trying to break through, but then he felt it. A deep pain unlike anything he had ever felt shot through his chest and radiated into the rest of his body, causing him to arch off the table somewhat due to its intensity. He screamed as the pain became stronger, feeling like white-hot irons piercing his body again and again. Something else was happening. His screams became deeper, more guttural. There were points where the pain seemed to start localizing, particularly at the sides of his head and around his bottom jaw.

"Return to us, our old master!" the Twinrova proclaimed, whether it was just one or the other or they were truly speaking in unison not being clear. "Use this perfectly prepared vessel to enter the world once again! Awaken, Ganon!"

 _ **BOOM!**_

The Twinrova shrieked–this was clearly not in their plan. Ganondorf felt the restraints holding him down suddenly cut loose, and he doubled over in his agony and rolled off the table. Though turned away, he could hear the clanging of steel and Urbosa and the Twinrova shouting at one another, though what either party was saying he could not discern. He felt himself being lifted onto his feet and carried to the rather large hole that was once the wall that Urbosa had been trying to break through, the smell of spent gunpowder entering his nostrils. He could feel the pain slowly lessen, but it was still there to some degree.

"I can't believe this!" Koume shouted, waving her arms about furiously and letting off a few tiny sparks of flame in the process. "How in the world could that girl have gotten in here?!"

"Worry not, Koume," Kotake said. "We at least managed to begin the resurrection process, and that is enough for now. All she has done was to delay the inevitable."

* * *

"And this is Cojiro!"

Lori held the blue-feathered Cucco in front of her, letting Skull Kid get a good look at him. Cojiro didn't seem to be too bothered by being in the forest, nor by this strange-looking person staring straight at him with glowing eyes. Similarly, Lori had been delighted to accompany Link to check up on things in the forest, as Skull Kid had expressed interest in learning about Cuccos and that was a subject that she was only too happy to share her knowledge of with others.

"He's certainly a handsome bird, ain't he?" Skull Kid asked, gently stroking Cojiro's head with a bark-covered finger. "So what do you guys keep these things for, anyway? They're birds, so I'm guessing they have good eggs for eating?"

"Eggs are a reason, yeah," Lori explained. "Sometimes we'll use 'em as a meat source, too. But _not_ Cojiro. He's a fancy breed, not meant for laying or eating, and he's a lot tamer than the rest of the flock."

"So he's just there to look good."

"More so that he's a companion, at least that's how I see him." Lori gave Cojiro's head a light smooch, and he clucked contently.

"Anyway..." Skull Kid turned to Link, smiling widely as per usual. "As you can clearly tell, everything's going pretty smoothly out here. No signs of any Gohma, big or small, and the GDT's recovering real nice. The Scrubs are still being obnoxious, but that's normal for them and they don't really cause any trouble. At least, no more trouble than me." He laughed at his own joke.

Link smiled and nodded. That was a good thing, at least. If the only trouble in the forest was something Skull Kid could easily handle without help then that would be a big relief. The village would definitely be safe if that were the case.

"Well, actually, that's not _entirely_ true now that I think about it," Skull Kid said, almost hesitantly.

An eyebrow raised on Link's face. Not entirely true? What could that mean? Lori was thinking along the same lines and asked, "It's not anything big that could come into the village, is it?"

Skull Kid shrugged. "Not sure," he said flippantly. "All I know is that I've been sensing something weird for a while, and I thought it was two creeps roaming around in here, but then I saw a figure earlier this morning and...no one else. Just this weird dude in black talking to himself, but it still felt like two people. I've been keeping an eye on him, though, you guys probably won't have to worry."

The tone of Skull Kid's voice sounded more like he was trying to reassure himself more than Link and Lori. For the sake of the village, Link really hoped his words were more confident in that assumption than he was.

* * *

 **AN:** So yeah, turns out my hiatus wasn't much longer than the wait period I'd put on previous pre-written chapters to space them out a bit more (I was getting those done rapid-fire and I didn't wanna bombard you guys with too many at once), as I got a new tablet fairly soon after posting the last chapter so will be able to do DA's chapter preview images pretty easily. I'm writing in OpenOffice now which is definitely interesting, and all my files were backed up so I haven't lost anything (other than a few folders for Chronicles of Tajiria, but those folders were all empty so we're all good there). Either way, this chapter was meant to be more of an intermission to set up events for the next half of the story, even before the computer crash. ...and then I decided to add the Ganondorf bit to this one. I guess that made it less of an intermission in some manner, huh? Hehe...

Also, just gonna clarify, I headcanon Midna and Zant as siblings and have done so for years. I know there's no in-canon things to specifically nudge towards that, but I figure that Zant would probably not have been as torn up over not being given the Twilight throne as he was if he wasn't at least somewhat royalty as well. Just my thoughts, not gonna push it on anyone else outside of this fic.

—Jess aka PuppyLuver256


	7. Dethroned and Disarmed

" _I shall give my Amulet to a wise leader, one whose mind is flexible like water and whose morals are resolute like the shores it crashes against."_

And so the Amulet of Wisdom was passed to the first king of the Zora people, who was intelligent, just, and kind to his people. Over the ages, as the Zora prospered, the Amulet passed from parent to child, a symbol of their position as much as a reminder of the royal family's values. They were to solve conflict with wit rather than war whenever possible, they were to be fair in governance and law, and most of all they were to be humble despite their position. After all, a ruler was nothing without the support of their people.

" _I shall give my Amulet to the person most willing and able to claim it. A contest of strength shall decide its new owner, be that strength of the body or the mind, with a fire of passion burning in their soul. May the strongest come and claim their prize."_

And so a tournament of fighters was held with participants from across the land, the Amulet of Power placed for claim as a trophy. It would not be a fight to the death, as that would dirty the prize's value. Combatants clashed swords and drew bows under the watch of an enthralled audience, who cheered and cried for their preferred warrior even as the tournament spanned the year's seasons. In the end, after everyone had been defeated or otherwise retired from the battle, the last warrior still standing was a dragon knight clad in red armor. He took hold of the Amulet with pride, as well as a warning that some day a fighter might come along that would prove himself more worthy. Even still, in that moment, he was satisfied.

" _Who shall I give my Amulet to, then?"_

She had always been a bit more flighty than her compatriots. They had been so sure of how to pass on their Amulets, be it entrusting it to a wise ruler-to-be or to let willing candidates fight for it. But how to test what her Amulet stood for? What would be a good benchmark for a worthy owner of the Amulet of Courage?

" _I shall give my Amulet to... well, I suppose that will be my little secret."_

* * *

The desert was no bigger than it had ever been, but in the moment it seemed to go on forever. It was a near miracle that Urbosa had been able to bring Ganondorf as far as she had, given that they were using Frelly for transport rather than Ganondorf's more robust horse, and even though she had managed to get the bleeding from the ritualistic wounds under control they were going to need a professional to fix it up proper. Just a little further to go...

Ganondorf began to stir, groaning from what Urbosa could only imagine was immense pain. "Hang on, Gan," she said. "We'll get back to town soon enough."

"No...not the town..." Ganondorf protested breathlessly. "That would...be the first place...they'd look..."

"Then where the hell do you think we should go?" Urbosa asked. "You want us to just roam around the desert forever to escape those witches? Or did you forget you've gotten sliced open _three times_ in the past _day?!_ "

"Hyrule." He wasn't sure why that was the first place to came to mind, but something in Ganondorf's mind told him that Hyrule was where he wanted to go. "I think I need to...I need to get to Hyrule's castle."

"Why Hyrule Castle?" Urbosa asked. "Think they've got better doctors there?"

"Not for the doctors," Ganondorf said. "I just...need to meet up with Zelda." He was hesitant to say anything, but he suspected that while the ritual the Twinrova had performed had been interrupted, it hadn't been completely stopped. Ever since they had escaped from the Spirit Temple, Ganondorf had felt a sort of presence crawling around inside his mind. It was small, but it was definitely there, and he wanted it gone before it could get any bigger. Maybe Zelda could help, she had that sort of ability if he remembered correctly, or at least was knowledgeable about it. Though in the briefest moment, he also got the feeling that maybe that was what the presence wanted.

"Unless Zelda has medical training, I don't see why you'd rather see her, but whatever." Urbosa sighed. "We should try to find your horse first, though. You know as well as I that sand seals are only really functional on sand."

* * *

It had been a couple days since the Twili had arrived at Hyrule Castle. Due to their mutual need to formulate plans for finding Zant and stopping him before he caused any trouble in this world, Zelda had graciously offered them lodging in the castle's spare rooms for the duration of their stay, an offer which Midna was all too happy to accept for the both of them. Over the course of that time, when not actively trying to pinpoint locations where they might find him, Zelda and Midna had taken to chatting with one another about various other topics. Their conversations were mostly about the differences between their worlds, what sort of things that were normal in one world ended up being completely unknown to the other, and eventually the topic would move on to themselves. "So what led to you becoming queen, if you don't mind my prying?" Zelda asked, gently stirring her tea.

"That's part of the reason I'm here, actually," Midna said. "We have sort of a democratic monarchy, where the eldest child of the current leader is initially named successor but the people have the final word on whether or not they are believed to be truly qualified for it. I was my father's eldest, and I guess I'm popular enough with my people for them to agree with the decision. Zant thought otherwise, and he felt strong enough about that opinion to...commit regicide." She was hesitant to say that, as though putting words to the act itself made it too real for her. "My father was a good man, and I only wish the end of his rule hadn't been so brutal."

"I'm so sorry," Zelda said. "It must be hard to lose someone so suddenly. I wonder if anything could be this important to someone to lead them to kill their own father..."

"Oh, my dad wasn't Zant's dad," Midna said dismissively. "We share a mother, but his father was a different noble. Never got on with him much, despite how Zant and I used to be so close." She then noticed Zelda's peculiar expression. "I take it that sort of thing isn't as common in your world, then?"

Zelda shook her head. "Not really, or at least it's not something that's very widely talked about."

"Interesting."

At that moment, the door opened without warning and Morshei made his way in. "Your Highness, I need you and your guest to come with me," he said, seeming to be out of breath.

"Whatever is the matter?" Zelda asked.

"It's the Yiga," Morshei panted. "They're gathering close, and they appear to be trying to break past the castle defenses."

Zelda gasped, but Midna just gave them an odd look. "What are Yiga?" she asked. "Some kind of light world monster?"

"There's no time to explain, if they really are invading," Zelda said. "Let's get out of here."

Zelda and Midna followed behind Morshei as he ran quickly down the hallway. Soon enough he had led them to the throne room, where Impa and Luzen were waiting with weapons drawn. "What's going on?" Luzen asked, a large bladed ring in each hand. "Someone's attacking the castle, right? This is...oh gods..."

Impa, obviously, was much more furious than confused, though there was a bit of confusion mixed into her rage-filled expression. "Where are they?!" she demanded. "How the hell did Yiga get into the town in the first place?!"

Morshei said nothing, merely looking away from her as if ashamed of himself. After an uncomfortable period of silence, he pointed toward the ceiling. They all looked up.

And the dozen or so Yiga soldiers that had been clinging to the ceiling dropped down.

A frightened gasp escaped Zelda's mouth as they were encircled by the Yiga, some of whom laughed darkly as they all closed in. "What...how did they all get in here unnoticed?" she asked.

"I'm sorry," Morshei said. "They took my little brother...this was the only way they would let him go unharmed." In that moment, it clicked. The Yiga hadn't intruded upon the castle unnoticed. They had been invited in.

One of the Yiga closest to Morshei patted him on the shoulder. "Way to go, kid!" he exclaimed. "You've basically handed the princess to us on a silver platter, and you've even gotten us a completely different one _and_ their guards!"

"Excuse YOU, we're both queens!" Midna shouted.

Zelda shot her a look. "Midna, I don't know how you've handled things back home, but now's _really_ not the best time to get hung up on details like that."

"I don't know who you guys are," Luzen said while holding their rings in front of them, "but if you so much as touch one hair on Midna's head, you'll regret it for the rest of your short life!"

The Yiga that had been messing with Morshei dropped into a fighting stance, the same one that the others had been in as they surrounded their targets. "Pretty big talk for someone who's shaking like a leaf." Luzen winced–clearly this person had noticed their lack of confidence.

"Didn't think that lowlife types such as yourselves would be able to come up with tactics like this," Impa said bitterly. "Though you've all forgotten one very important thing."

A confused murmuring spread throughout the Yiga soldiers. "And what's that, you royal boot-licker?" the one that seemed to be in charge asked.

"Typical Yiga tricks aren't as removed from those of the Sheikah as you'd like to believe."

All at once, Impa had pulled a small object from her pocket and threw it onto the ground. There was a loud cracking sound and a brilliant flash of light, temporarily blinding everyone who hadn't thought to block their line of sight. There was panicked shouting and some cries of pain. When the light had died down, the targets were gone and several of the Yiga that had been blocking their rear had been knocked out. The leader looked around and, being unable to discern where they had gone, grabbed Morshei threateningly by his shirt collar. "Where'd they run off to?!" he growled.

"I-I don't know!" Morshei gasped. "But they couldn't have gotten that far in that time...maybe the rear exit near the armory?"

"You'd better hope your guess is right," the leader said. "This slip-up won't quite be worth the kid, but it might just be worth your remaining eye."

As it turned out, they had not made their escape towards the armory. Zelda was leading Midna down a winding corridor, with Impa and Luzen at their backs. "We've got to get out of here quickly," Zelda said breathlessly. "If only I had time to grab my rapier..."

"That fancy sword you've kept in your room?" Midna asked. "Gotcha covered." She snapped her fingers, and in a puff of smoke the sword appeared in her hand, thankfully still in its sheathe considering she had grabbed it by where its blade would be if it were drawn. "You can thank me after we're safe."

A scuffling sound could be heard swiftly approaching from the end of the corridor they had been leaving. "Zelda, you and Midna get going," Impa said. "We'll hold them off."

"We can't just–" Zelda began to say, but Impa held up a hand to stop her. "...Right. Just...be careful."

"Keep Midna safe for me, all right?" Luzen asked. "She's not just a ruler to me, after all. We're practically family."

"Don't worry about me, Lu," Midna said. "Worry about getting out of this in one piece."

The two monarchs ran, leaving their protectors behind for now. Zelda was examining the walls as they made their way down the corridor, stopping upon coming across a particular indention in the shape of the Hylian crest. Where a head in the eagle-like symbol would be, there was instead the icon of the Triforce. "Here, we can use this," she said. "Even if Morshei had given the Yiga full blueprints of the castle interior, they would never know of some of the secret passages."

"Because that's not something you put on public blueprints, right?" Midna guessed.

"Well, that's part of it," she said. "Apart from that, none of them would ever be able to do this." Zelda put her hand up to the bottom-left triangle in the Triforce symbol. A soft glow emanated from both her hand and the wall itself. Slowly the wall began to fade away, revealing another hallway, which Zelda motioned for Midna to quickly slip into. She did, and Zelda followed close behind, taking care to close the wall back behind them.

"Slick," Midna said with a light smirk. "So that's the kind of power a light dweller has, eh?"

"As far as I know, it's something that's almost entirely exclusive to the Hyrule royal bloodline," Zelda explained. "I'm sure there's similar magic elsewhere, but one would likely have to study it extensively." She backed away from the reformed wall, frowning a bit. "Maybe you retrieving my rapier wasn't such a good idea. It will identify me immediately to anyone who sees us escape."

"I think your gorgeous face would do that on its own, honestly."

Zelda felt her cheeks become hot. "You...you think I'm gorgeous?" she asked.

Midna shrugged. "Well, no one would be stupid enough to call you unattractive, and you are kinda my type," she said with her typical playful smile. "Buuut I get the feeling that this is not the time or place for that."

"Yes, you're right." Zelda thought for a bit. "Impa and I had made plans for a disguise and cover story if something like this were to happen, but the things I need for it are either in another secret passage or I've forgotten where I've hidden them entirely."

"Which means I probably wouldn't be able to teleport them here," Midna sighed.

Teleport... An idea popped into Zelda's head. "Can you teleport people?" she asked.

"Yes?" Midna replied uncertainly. "There are a bit more restrictions to teleporting something as big as a person. I have to do it in an area where the sky can be seen, I can only do it with one or two people, and while I probably could do so if I tried, I've yet to teleport somewhere that I myself had never been."

"But you could try it if we got outside?"

"Probably. You'd have to point me, though."

Zelda nodded. "Not a problem."

They made their way through the tunnel, the path lit for them by torches lining the walls that burned with magic flame. Once the tunnel seemed to come to a dead end, Zelda held up a hand and the wall faded just like it had at the entrance. Quickly, they ran through and out into the courtyard. The sun was setting, painting the sky in pink and orange hues. "This is a good spot," Midna said. "No ceiling, nice and clear of obstructions."

"All right, let me think of the perfect place." Zelda closed her eyes, deep in thought. Where could they go that the Yiga wouldn't find them? She briefly thought of Kakariko Village, but then she remembered that would likely be the first place outside of the castle town that they would look for many reasons. She would have to think of somewhere else, somewhere that they would least expect.

"There they are!"

Zelda's eyes shot open. They had been standing around too long, and now the conventional pathways the Yiga had been forced to use had led them to their location. "We have to go, now!" she shouted. The look on Midna's face made it clear she didn't have to be told twice. She held her hand into the air, and a swirling black and green vortex appeared in the sky above. "South," Zelda said in a worried yet hushed tone. "There's a small village near the forest in the south. It should be safe from them." As the Yiga approached, their bodies began to dissipate and float upwards toward the vortex.

* * *

"Just who is that guy, anyway...?"

Skull Kid's eyes narrowed, glaring through the underbrush at the strange tall man that had intruded on his forest. He and the Great Deku Tree were generally pretty lenient with unfamiliar people entering the forest whether they were from the nearby village or not, but there was just something about this guy that seemed wrong. It could've been that he was almost entirely covered in dark clothing on a somewhat warm day, or that menacing looking sword he carried on his back. Or maybe there was the fact that, no matter what angle he looked at him from, he couldn't see the guy's eyes. There was also the second voice that the stranger sometimes conversed with, one that he had not seen a body to which it would be attached the entire time he had been observing.

Zant made his way down the shaded forest path, not sure of exactly where he was going. "Are you absolutely _certain_ there's something worthwhile here?" he asked in an exasperated sigh. "All I've managed to find are more and more trees."

"I definitely sensed something powerful enough," Ghirahim said. "It's somewhere around here, but...ah, that would explain it."

"Explain what?"

"It keeps moving whenever we do," Ghirahim said. "In fact, that power source seems to be right behind us."

Zant turned around. Sure enough, there was a form behind him. It was shaped like a child, but it was blindingly brilliant to his senses. "Just like the Amulet," Zant muttered.

Skull Kid gasped. If he hadn't already been discovered, that would have tipped Zant off to his position instantly. A pulse of dark energy tore through the bushes, and Skull Kid would have been engulfed in its power if he hadn't managed to roll out of the way in time. No point in hiding anymore. Skull Kid leapt out of the bushes and toward Zant, knocking him square in the face with his lantern-staff. "How do you know about the Amulet?!" he shouted. "What have you done to Link?!"

"Link?" Zant mused, gingerly rubbing the spot where he had been struck. "I don't believe I know anyone by that name."

Skull Kid caught sight of the amber stone dangling from a leather strap attached to the large sword on Zant's back. "Wrong Amulet," he said. "Still, I get the feeling you're not someone who should have any of 'em."

"And I can sense the overwhelming power you're radiating," Zant said, taking his twin scimitars in hand. "Suffice to say, I know someone who needs your life more than you do."

Skull Kid's eyes widened, and he immediately teleported away, deeper into the brush. Zant scowled. "Don't you think you can hide from me for long!" he called out into the trees. "I may not be able to see you, but your magic might as well be a beacon all on its own! You're only delaying the inevitable by running!"

Whatever Zant was talking about, Skull Kid didn't have a clue. He figured the guy had some kind of extra sense that could pick up...something. Confident in his abilities as he was, he got the feeling that bringing in some friends couldn't hurt anything. He reached his hand into a hole in a tree and gently nudged a fairy out into the open, its light glowing a pale blue. "Go to the human village," he told it in a hushed whisper. "Find the one named Link. Yellow hair, wears green clothes, might be carrying a sword. Tell him to come find me, and if he wants to bring any other human friends along, so much the better. Now hurry!"

* * *

"You know, when I told you I figured a royal rainstorm was comin', this wasn't at _all_ what I had in mind."

Lori shook her head as Link made his way over to Zelda and the strange woman that had been with her, both of whom had suddenly fallen from the sky. Link looked them over, letting out a sigh of relief upon confirming that they at least seemed to be unharmed. Zelda looked around, confused. "It's only just occurred to me that I've never actually been here myself," she mused. "Your village is really beautiful, Link."

Link smiled and chuckled a bit. It didn't really seem like the appropriate time to be complimenting the appearance of the village, but it was appreciated nonetheless.

"How's a princess dropping out of the sky, anyway?" Lori asked. "Does having the blood of the Hylian royal family gives you wings or something?"

"It's a long story," Zelda said. "We can explain, but it might take a bit of time..."

Just then, there was an odd sound ringing through the air, like someone dragging a string of ornamental bells across the ground but not nearly as discordant. A pale blue light approached them with a frantic speed, and as it got closer wings could be seen fluttering around its glowing form. It was a fairy, and it stopped just before slamming into Link's face. "Hey!" a soft feminine voice exclaimed. "You're Link, right?"

Link nodded. He had no idea why a fairy would be coming to the village at all, let alone specifically seeking him out, but given a certain someone he knew that had associations with fairies this was probably not good news.

"It's the Skull Kid," the fairy said breathlessly. "He's in trouble, there's a dangerous intruder in the forest and he needs help!"

Link and Lori looked at each other. "It's gotta be something serious, innit?" Lori asked, concerned. "He didn't seem like the type to send help messages for just anything."

"If this is a friend of yours, I will come to aid him as well," Zelda said, getting to her feet.

"Sure, me too," Midna said, standing as well. "I've got nothing better to do." As Zelda turned back to her fellow royal, she let out a shocked gasp, and upon seeing what had startled her Link's eyes widened considerably. "What's the matter?" Midna asked.

"You're hurt!" Zelda exclaimed. "Look at your leg!"

Sure enough, there was a gash in Midna's thigh, bright red blood trickling down. "Huh," Midna said nonchalantly. "So I am." Strangely, she looked none the worse for wear aside from the obvious wound.

"It must not be that deep or else you would've likely noticed before anyone said anything," Lori said. "Still, the forest ain't kind to open wounds, so you'd be better off at least getting it cleaned up." She took a cloth out of her pocket and handed it to Midna. "Keep this on it for a while and go knock at that house over there with the Cuccos. That's our gran, she'll take care of that real quick."

"Okay," Midna said, turning before she realized something. "What's a Cucco, exactly?"

"They're _birds!_ " Link shouted in exasperation, causing Lori and Zelda to look at him in surprise.

"Birds, right. Got it." Midna made her way to the twins' grandmother's house, while they and Zelda readied themselves to follow the fairy to Skull Kid's aid.

* * *

The trio hurriedly made their way through the forest, taking care to not lose sight of the glowing trail of the fairy leading them to their destination. As they had no idea when they would come across whatever situation Skull Kid had gotten involved in, Link and Zelda already had their swords drawn, and Lori had her crossbow in hand as well. Soon enough, they could hear the faint sounds of combat and shouting, one of the voices sounding familiar to Link and Lori. Pushing through the trees led them to a clearing where Skull Kid stood, lantern-staff held out in a combat stance, facing off against a tall figure in dark clothing. "We got your message!" Lori exclaimed. "Don't worry, we have your back!"

Skull Kid let out a sigh of relief. "Just in time," he said, nearly out of breath.

"Calling for back-up, eh?" The stranger chuckled. "Smart move, though I don't think that will do much to help you."

Zelda gave the stranger a once-over, noting that something felt familiar about him. "Those clothes..." she said pensively. "Your name wouldn't happen to be Zant, would it?"

"Who told you that?" Zant's eyebrow raised, just barely visible over his blindfold.

"Your sister had several things to say about you," Zelda replied with a glare.

"So she's finally coming for me..." He shook his head. "It doesn't matter what she's doing or where she is," Zant said. "I'm only planning to kill this bright spot here and I'd rather not make a longer body trail than necessary, but if you get in my way I won't hesitate to take you down with him."

Link gasped. He was planning to kill...? Rage coursed through him, and before he could stop himself, he charged at Zant with his sword raised, ready to strike. It clanged against one of Zant's scimitars, which he used to effortlessly knock the sword away. "Is that _really_ the best you can do?" Zant asked with a small laugh. "I would have guessed that if someone like him were calling for aid, he'd at least try to get someone on his level." Letting out a yell of anger and frustration, Link struck again and again, each time his blade deflected by Zant. One blow finally grazed against the side of his face, drawing blood and causing him to flinch away, holding his hand to the cut to possibly stop any potential blood flow before it started.

"This is taking too long." The voice had come from Zant's direction, but no one could see its source. "Let me handle this."

Zant briefly took his hand away from his face and grinned. "All right, Ghirahim," he said coolly. "Let's see what else you can do." He reached behind him and grabbed the hilt of the large broadsword he'd been carrying on his back the whole time. As soon as he had, his arm moved in a somewhat jerky motion and his body followed, as though the sword was guiding his movement rather than the other way around. Link leapt out of the way of his strike, but in his attempt to strike back the sword immediately countered. He was knocked back, and a flash of steel was sent flying in the opposite direction. Looking down at his sword, Link's eyes widened in shock.

His sword was now little more than a hilt, a small chunk of steel left from the shattered blade.

A disembodied mocking laughter echoed through the trees. "Is _that_ the quality of weaponry humans are making these days?" the voice that had spoken to Zant earlier asked in a taunting manner. "I see nothing much has changed, you're just producing the same wastes of steel as ever!"

"Did... did you just... his sword...?" Zant seemed to be at a loss for words, unable to completely process what his remaining senses had inferred. "I really shouldn't be that surprised, but still..."

A wave of enchanted flame shot up between Zant and everyone else. Link looked over at Skull Kid, whose lantern staff was held out and spewing forth embers. "It's looking pretty clear that you guys aren't gonna be as much help as I'd hoped," he said with a grimace. He stepped forth, the flames parting and immediately closing behind him. "As much fun as this reunion's been, and meeting the fancy new girl, we're gonna have to cut things short." Skull Kid stomped his feet on the ground repeatedly and let out an eerie screech. Without warning, the ground began to shake.

Before he could do anything to stop his friend, the forest floor collapsed, dropping Link, Lori, and Zelda into the depths below.

* * *

 **AN:** I've been waiting to write this chapter and the next since the very beginning of this project, and let me just say I'm really happy to get this out to you guys, even if it's gonna get a bit dark. You guys might wanna find something soft and cuddly to hold on to whenever next chapter drops. Just letting you know in advance. Also, speaking of new chapters, as you guys can probably tell I'm not posting as often as I have been, and that's mainly because I can't write the chapters as quickly as the previous ones. Chapters 2, 3, and 4 could've been written in any order because they're not directly connected to each other, and 5 had Zant who is _such_ a pleasure to write, so I was just crankin' 'em out. All chapters from here on out, I have to write them in sequential order for events to line up (that's just how my writing process works), so they're not gonna be quiiiite as frequent. To be fair, if I'd posed the first five chapters as soon as they were finished, y'all woulda gotten overloaded.

As for SpaceDimentio's concern that Ganondorf being good in my story might not last, weeellllll... I can't say that he _himself_ won't stay good, but I also can't entirely say that there won't be something sinister involving him. I mean, _obviously_ , you don't get forced into a ritual where your blood was let and come out with _nothing_ sinister at least attached! Hahaha! Haha... haaah...

—Jess aka PuppyLuver256


	8. Forest Sage and Triplicate Sonata

**AN:** Yeah, I know I don't do these until after the chapter's over, but this one's important. There's gonna be some harsher depictions of violence in this chapter than I usually dabble in, so if you don't want to read that sort of thing, it's probably best that you leave now and (if you're eager to still keep up with this story) feel free to PM me for the tldr version.

* * *

They could see her through the trees, the light of her fairy companion illuminating her even in the dark of the forest's shade. She swayed back and forth on the stump where she sat, an instrument at her lips which she used to play a jovial tune. It was something she did often, coming to the deepest depths of the forest to play music, sometimes speaking with her fairy on various things. They found her very interesting, but could not place exactly why.

A twig snapped underfoot. She turned quickly, her green hair whipping around her head from the speed at which she had done so. She was looking right in their direction, though they had no idea if she could actually see them yet or not.

" _Hello? Is someone there?"_

They didn't respond, nor even move. They had never tried to interact with any of the fairy children before, mainly because most of them did not bother to come this deep into the forest due to a fear of getting lost, and now presented with the opportunity to do so they were terrified. What if they scared her away? They would never get to hear her lovely music again if that were the case.

" _It's okay, you don't have to hide if you're really there. I won't hurt you."_

They briefly considered making themself visible. Her words were comforting, her tone soothing. But still, their worry ran thick through their heart like sap from a cut tree.

" _You...you'll get scared. I'm scary. I don't want to make you run away."_

She drew closer, a warm and friendly smile on her face. Her fairy followed. Its light began to brighten the shadows they were hiding in, and they backed away.

" _You don't sound scary. Why don't you come out of hiding and let me find out for myself if you are?"_

They hesitantly poked their head out from behind the tree. She did seem startled upon first seeing them, but after a moment her shock was clearly brought about by mere surprise rather than fright.

" _You're one of the Skull Kids, aren't you? It's so nice to get to meet one of you face to face. Do you have a name...?"_

* * *

"Is everyone all right?" Zelda asked, holding her hand out and letting a magic light shine forth to illuminate their surroundings. "That was quite a nasty fall."

Lori sat up, stretching and looking herself over. "Nothing broken," she said, getting to her feet. "Think I'm good. How about you guys?"

"I believe I'm fine as well," Zelda said, also standing. "Link?"

Link gave himself a once-over, not noticing anything particularly wrong or out of place about his physical condition. He looked up at Zelda with a reassuring nod, but as he stood he realized he was still gripping the hilt of his broken sword. He frowned. This sword had been hand-crafted by his father just for him, plain yet sturdy and strong, and not only had it served him well on his delivery runs it held plenty of sentimental value. The shattered blade also served to remind him of what had led them to fall into this dark cavernous area in the first place: Skull Kid was still in danger. He panicked–they had to find a way back to the surface.

"Where are we, anyway?" Lori asked. "I ain't never heard of anything like this in our woods."

Prompted by her words, Link looked around at their newfound surroundings. Truly he had never guessed a place like this would be underground in a forest. Plant-life had for the most part overtaken anything, but it was still very clear that there was stonework underneath the network of roots and vines, the type of structure that could only be constructed by hands driven by intelligence. Whatever this overgrowth-ridden building once was, it had clearly been something important at one time or another.

"There used to be many temples scattered around Hyrule," Zelda said, a hint of excitement in her voice. "They had been built to harness the magical energy of whatever force was strongest in that location. I imagine this might be the ruins of one such temple, constructed to channel the energy of the forest." She noticed something along the wall and gasped, running over to whatever she had spotted. "See, look at this!" she exclaimed. "Here, an emblem of a people that were said to live in Hyrule's forests!" She put her hand up to the wall, where a swirling symbol was etched into an odd-colored stone. "I never found very much on them in my books, but what I did find implied that they were very in-tune with the forest and nature in general. They had fairy companions with them, and there are rumors that they remained in a childlike state throughout their lives."

" _Fascinating_ ," Lori sighed, shaking her head. "I'm sure the history lesson would be a real treat any other day, but we need to focus on getting back topside, Your Majesty."

Zelda hung her head in embarrassment. "Right, of course," she said dejectedly. "I'm sorry, I was so intrigued by the discoveries this place held that I got caught up in the moment..."

"Just be sure to save some of that enthusiasm for when we're out," Lori said with a reassuring smile. "I'm sure Link and I'll be happy to hear you gush about fun history facts when we're all safe." She glanced at Link, who turned to Zelda and nodded enthusiastically.

"Well then, we should get started on trying to find an exit," Zelda said. "Surely there must still be a reasonably accessible way out somewhere..."

Zelda began to examine the walls for any sign of further passages, with Link and Lori following close behind. All the while, Link felt a deep pit of worry in his stomach. Not only was Skull Kid in danger, but even if they were able to get back to the surface he would be unable to help. If only he had a functioning sword, perhaps one that wouldn't break so easily...

* * *

Skull Kid's wall of fire spread throughout the clearing, not scorching even a single blade of grass despite the intense heat radiating from it. "So that's how it's going to be, is it?" Zant asked with a smirk, scimitars in hand rather than the larger and clearly more powerful blade he was carrying. "One on one, with no escape. I'll take those odds."

"Yeah, funny thing about this fire, the only one it's gonna burn if they're stupid enough to walk right into it is _you_ ," Skull Kid retorted. "Shouldn't play with tools you can't control, after all!" He hopped back a bit, holding his lantern staff in a fighting stance. "And now, we dance."

"Gladly."

They charged at one another, metal striking on wood, a fireball effortlessly swatted away as a pulse of dark magic was dodged with an impressive swiftness. In truth to Skull Kid's statement, it was very much like a dance, and if someone came upon this scene and didn't know better they might assume that it was much less a battle than a perfectly choreographed performance. It was only when a stray fireball struck Zant's shoulder that the flow of their combat faltered. He let out a cry of surprise and instinctively grabbed at the burning limb, wincing as he did so. "So you managed to get one good hit in," he said through gritted teeth. "I shouldn't have expected any less from someone with the power of a god. At least you've proven you know how to use it to some extent."

Skull Kid's eyes widened. "How do you know about that?" he asked in a hushed tone, more out of shock than any wish to keep secrets.

"A mix of metaphor and educated guess." Zant tilted his head up to face Skull Kid, and while the blindfold hid his eyes the position of his eyebrows gave the impression that he was glaring at him with a fierce intensity. "I've never come across anyone who burns as bright as you, so if you're weren't gifted by a god specifically then you've got something special about you."

A puff of smoke, and Zant was gone. Skull Kid kept his grip on the lantern staff firm. "Okay, you can't just drop that sort of thing and bounce," he said. Despite his best efforts, there was a slight waver in his voice betraying his growing unease. "I thought you _wanted_ to fight me! This whole disappearing act is kind of my thing–"

 _Clunk._

The lantern staff dropped to the ground. Skull Kid looked down at where it had fallen, only to see half of a wooden arm beside it, the hand still in a death grip around the handle and a phosphorous liquid spilling forth from where it had been severed. He lifted what remained of his arm and more of that liquid came gushing from the stump. He gasped, turning around to see that Zant had reappeared, that same glowing fluid coating the end of one of his scimitars. Before he could react, another swing cleaved his other arm from his body. "Aw, come on!" he groaned, grimacing due to annoyance rather than the pain that would be expected from losing two limbs. "It's gonna take me _weeks_ to regrow those!"

"Oh, really?" Zant kicked Skull Kid in the chest, knocking him off his feet, then severed his legs as well. "Well then, I guess that means we have plenty of time to wait for your friends to find their way back to us. I'm sure they'd _love_ to see you in this state."

Skull Kid was out of options. Completely and utterly disarmed, it took everything he had to try and crawl towards his staff with his uneven stumps. He wasn't able to get very close to it before a foot came down upon the lantern attached to it, glass shattering across the grass and snuffing out the flame within. "N-no..." He felt his body being lifted off the ground, surrounded by dark magic, and watched as the wall of fire he had created began to diminish. Zant let out a laugh, a harsh, high-pitched laugh that sounded so contrary to how his voice previously had.

As Zant made his way deeper into the forest, Skull Kid floating helplessly beside him and the discarded severed limbs in his hand held like a small bundle of firewood, that second voice was all too happy to join in his mirth.

* * *

Link and Lori followed Zelda through the temple, letting her historical expertise guide them through the weaving corridors. "Strange," Zelda mused to herself. "I can't be entirely certain if the branching paths are meant to merely represent the forest's trees or if they're genuinely meant to confuse trespassers."

"Let's hope it's the former," Lori said. She shivered, rubbing her hands on her arms to try and warm them where the length of her sleeves failed to do so. "It's getting close to summertime, right?" she asked. "Feels like an ice box in this place."

Now that she mentioned it, Link did notice that it was considerably cooler in this temple than it had been topside. He had assumed it was because they were surrounded by stonework, however overgrown it may have been, with hardly any sunlight penetrating into the structure. Letting out a breath, he realized he could see a bit of fog coming from his lips along with it. Something about this chill didn't seem natural.

A sudden frigid wind blew past him without warning. Link let out a gasp of surprise and turned in the direction the wind had come from, then the direction it had gone. Nothing. "What's wrong, Link?" Zelda asked, briefly turning her focus away from the architecture. "Did you see something?" Link just gave her a confused look. Sure, he had felt something, but either he was seriously imagining things or it was something that could not be seen, either through magical trickery or just by being too quick to notice. "That's odd," Zelda mused. "Well, we should be careful anyway. No telling what might be in here with us."

Lori let out a gasp and pointed behind the others. "Look out!" she shouted, just as a burst of ethereal violet flame shot past Link and barely grazed his ear. Laughter echoed throughout the empty halls, coming from seemingly nowhere and everywhere at once. "Ghosts!" Lori shrieked. "Why'd it have to be ghosts?!"

"Even ghosts can be defeated," Zelda said, surprisingly calm given the situation. "Though since not all of us are armed, we should focus on getting away rather than taking them on." Link grimaced at this, really wishing that she didn't keep bringing up the state of his sword.

"No need to tell me twice!" Lori was already running in the opposite direction, with Link and Zelda close behind. Unfortunately, now that Lori was apparently leading rather than Zelda, they became lost in the temple's labyrinthine halls rather quickly. This did nothing to deter the now awakened spirits. They hadn't seen live people in ages, and they were quite eager to welcome their new guests in the most unpleasant of ways. Occasionally Lori would pause in their escape to shoot at the spirits with her crossbow, and while the bolts did make them freeze in place it only barely pushed them back.

They continued through the twisting corridors, the sounds of pursuing spirits gradually decreasing. "Perhaps they've found us to be not as interesting as they would have liked," Zelda said.

"They'd better've," Lori said, nearly out of breath. "I don't much care for the dead bein' anywhere but in the ground where they belong." She looked up, then took notice of something. "Hey, what's that?"

Link, having stopped to catch his breath as well, took a look around the room they had found themselves in. It was a large expanse, which seemed to have more holes in the ceiling that allowed more shafts of light to filter through. That wasn't what had garnered their collective attention, however. In the very center of the room was a pedestal, one that looked to be of great importance. Sitting atop the pedestal, planted into a slot in the ground. was an impossibly immaculate sword. The design of the sword was simple, with a blue hilt that had the simplified shape of wings, and as Link approached it he could see an engraving of the Triforce on the blade. What's more, there was no telling how long this sword had been down here and yet there wasn't a single speck of dirt or rust on any part of it. "It's beautiful," he said in a hushed tone of awe.

"Don't touch it!" Lori hissed. "You see how it's so clean? There's no way that's normal, s'probably cursed or somethin'..." Link frowned in disappointment. Sure, he had no real plan of disturbing the sword, but there was just something about it that was pulling him in. Not in a sinister way, he felt, but like an old friend trying to bring him in for a hug.

"Let me take a look at that," Zelda said, also stepping up to examine the sword. Her eyes widened as she carefully looked over the blade, her jaw dropping in surprise to match her eyes. "By the gods..." she gasped. "So this is where it's been all this time..."

"Where what's been?" Lori asked.

"The Blade of Evil's Bane." Zelda gently put a finger on the hilt and ran it over the detailing, bringing it down to the engravings on the blade itself, and could barely contain her excitement and disbelief. "More commonly referred to as the Master Sword, but the point remains that this is an incredibly important piece of history. It is a sword spoken of in legends, said to be wielded by countless heroes who used it to drive back dark forces whenever Hyrule was in danger. The historians all thought it was lost for good, I just can't believe...what's it doing in a place like this?"

"Who cares why it's here!" In a complete contradiction to her previous stance, Lori was now grabbing at the sword's handle and trying to pry it from its resting place. "The point _remains_...this is a _sword_...Link's sword is _broken_...he can use _this_ one... _instead!_ " She fell back after many failed attempts to remove the blade. "They weld the thing in or something?"

Zelda grimaced. "We might not even be able to use it," she said. "If what the stories say are true, once it's lodged in the pedestal that holds it, it can only be removed by a chosen hero. It would be quite the coincidence if one of us happened to be that hero."

Lori pouted, realizing what her lack of success said about that. "Eh, it could probably tell I'm not much into swords anyway," she said with a dismissive shrug.

Link stared at the blade. That sense of it calling to him was still strong as it had been when he initially noticed it. Without thinking, he carefully took hold of the hilt. Instantly he felt a pleasant warmth in his hands. He slowly began to inch the blade from its place in the pedestal, and with one final tug removed it completely. The force from the sudden release caused him to stumble back, and one look at both Zelda and Lori let him know that they were just as surprised as he was. "Link, you..." Zelda gasped. "You just...oh my!"

The unnatural chill that had chased them into this room suddenly came back. Laughter rang out around them, and parts of the floor began to darken as ghosts with tattered rags draped across their dark ethereal bodies and sinister glowing eyes seeped up through the cracks. They giggled as they dragged themselves out of the ground and closed in on the three. "Can we save the celebration for later?" Lori asked, slightly panicked. "Not to state the obvious, but they're back!"

Link nodded, turning his newly acquired sword in his hand a bit to get a feel for its weight. It was time to see what this thing could do, and after all, what better way was there to test something known as the Blade of Evil's Bane than on a pack of evil spirits?

He ran at the nearest ghost and, in a move that came just as naturally to him as anything he had ever learned, leapt up and brought the sword down upon it. Its light cleaved through its spectral form, dissolving it. The other two ghosts seemed to panic at this turn of events and began to flee, but not before one of them was pinned by a crossbow bolt. "Nailed it!" Lori exclaimed, as Zelda had dispatched the final remaining one.

"Well, that takes care of that, then," Zelda said with a sigh of relief. "Link, you certainly know your way around any sword, don't you?"

Link laughed sheepishly. It always did embarrass him to get complements, and something about getting one from Zelda seemed to increase that feeling. Before he could get too flustered, he heard an odd sound, almost like the grinding of stone. He turned to the source of the sound, and it turned out that was exactly what it was–part of the stone wall was slowly lowering, revealing another chamber similar to the one they were currently in. A fragrant breeze seemed to blow in from the new chamber, and soft green light shone from within. "Hero chosen by the Master Sword..."a soft, feminine voice echoed from the chamber. "Please, come this way. You and your companions will find what you seek within."

"Should we really trust a random voice in a creepy temple?" Lori asked. "Could be another one of those ghosties tryin' to fool us."

"It's better than nothing," Zelda said. Link nodded in agreement and made his way into the newly opened chamber, with Zelda following close behind and Lori soon after.

Within the chamber, the three could now make out a small, vaguely feminine form in the light. It seemed to be taking on a more distinct form as they approached, and the brilliant light around the form dimmed to the point where they could directly look at it and see what it had become. Standing before them was what looked like a Hylian girl seemingly no older than ten or eleven, dressed in a simple forest green outfit and with neatly bobbed green hair curling up just under her ears. She opened her eyes and looked upon the three of them with a warm smile. "Welcome," she said politely, doing a small curtsy. "It has been quite some time since anyone has graced this temple with their presence, much less someone capable of wielding the Master Sword."

Zelda gasped, her eyes widened in surprise. "You're a...a Kokiri!" she exclaimed. "I thought they all either died out or took on another form..."

"And you would be correct, princess of Hyrule," the Kokiri girl said. "The Kokiri are, generally speaking, no longer around in the form you can readily identify them as. This is just a form that I've taken in the past, one that I've become particularly attached to." She giggled, smiling and showing the uneven teeth of a child whose adult teeth had not replaced their first set. "I am Saria, the Forest Sage. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, the three of you."

Link smiled and held out a hand to shake hers, which she jokingly obliged by passing her hand clean through his own. He stared at his hand, confused, then looked back into Saria's mischievously glinting blue eyes. It clicked: she wasn't really there, or at least not in the sense of a physical presence.

"So what'd you bring us in here for, exactly?" Lori asked.

Saria turned her attention to Lori. "I didn't bring you here," she said slyly. "I just opened the door, you three walked in yourselves."

Lori shook her head. "Y'know what I meant, doncha?"

A light nod and a smile. "I've been waiting for this moment for a long time," Saria explained. "I and the other Sages' spirits, actually. You see, throughout the ages the forces of light have been working on a plan to eradicate the spirit of an ancient evil once and for all. It requires five parts to work in total: the three Amulets of the Goddesses in union, the Blade of Evil's Bane, and a medley of song filled with our collective power."

Link, Zelda, and Lori glanced at one another nervously. They'd only entered this chamber in an attempt to escape the temple, and now they were getting roped into some quest of ages?

"Clearly you already have the Blade, and I can feel the power of the Amulets of Wisdom and Courage in your position," Saria said. "All that would be left to do is for me to impart my portion of the song unto you, and of course lead you to a safe exit. It wouldn't do well for the ones destined to save the world to be trapped in what I can only assume is now the long forgotten ruins of a crumbling temple."

The weight of the Sage's words hung onto Link's sense of duty. He stepped forward and nodded. "We'll do what we can," Zelda said.

"I'll help too!" Lori said. "Though could you maybe hurry with the whole 'lead to a safe exit' bit? Only we got a friend up top that's in a right state."

"Of course, of course," Saria said. She reached a hand into her pocket and removed a small object. It was an ocarina, made of bone and shaped vaguely like a potato. "I do hope that one of you can play an instrument."

"I can," Zelda said. "I don't have it on hand, but I can remember whatever you play for us."

"Good." Saria brought the ocarina up to her lips and played a short, jovial melody. "Did you get that?" she asked once she had finished.

Zelda nodded. "I believe so, yes."

"All right, then," Saria said. "Well, that means it's time for you three to get going. You will have to seek out the other Sages and obtain their parts in the song elsewhere." A blue light enveloped them, and they felt their feet lift from the ground. "Goodbye, Hero. Goodbye, Princess. Goodbye, Hero's kin. And good luck to the three of you." She gasped, then hurriedly added, "Oh, the friend you seek to aid! He is in dire straits at an altar somewhere in the forest. If you hurry, you may just make it in time!"

* * *

As soon as the forest breeze hit his skin, Link was on the move, with Zelda and Lori close behind. He had no idea where the altar was located, but as there was a relatively clear stone path leading out of the temple he could hazard a guess that he was on the right track. He hoped beyond hope that he would get there in time...

Link followed the path, panting heavily as he ran, and soon came upon the altar. The sight of what was laid upon the altar caused him to stop–Skull Kid, his limbs severed and pouring fourth a strange glowing liquid that he could only assume was his analogue for blood, and Zant standing over him with that strange sword in his hand. "I was beginning to wonder if I would have to start without you," Zant said with a dark chuckle. "To be fair, I could have done this at any time, but my steely benefactor and I both felt it would be sadistically thematic to let the last thing this whelp sees be his allies as they realize they're too late."

Skull Kid's head turned to look at Link, fear in his eyes. "Link..." he gasped out, not sounding pained as would be expected from his wounds but instead sounding terrified. "I couldn't stop him...I'm sorry."

Zant smiled, and without another word he plunged the sword straight into Skull Kid's chest. A short gasp was all that came from his mouth, then his glowing lamp-like eyes darkened.

" _ **NOOOOOOOO!**_ "

His screaming drowned out everything else around him, just as his own speech always had. He didn't even realize he was running up to the altar until he was close enough to see Zant's lips moving around words he would never hear. Blinded by rage and deafened by his own anguished wailing, Link haphazardly swung his sword at his best friend's murderer. He thought he saw red streak across his vision, though he might have been mistaken. He didn't care. He wanted Zant to hurt physically as much as he was emotionally.

A swift kick to the chest knocked the wind out of him and brought him down from his rampage. Link fell to the ground and drew in a sharp breath, glancing upward at his attacker. To his surprise, it wasn't Zant, who had a hand pressed to his cheek to stop the blood that was slowly leaving a cut that Link must have left on it. The sword that had impaled Skull Kid had disappeared. In its place, or more accurately what had stepped forth from its place, was what appeared to be a man carved from solid obsidian. White diamond patterns streaked across his form, and his eyes were a solid white with no pupil or iris. "Ahhh, it feels so _good_ to be able to move properly again," the man said, a strange metallic ringing in his words. He flexed an arm and grinned. "I was getting extremely tired of that form."

"Ghirahim, you..." Zant gasped, still trying to stem the blood flow from his relatively minor wound. "That really is you, right?"

The obsidian man laughed. "Who else would it be?" Ghirahim asked. "And it looks like the little nuisance from earlier hasn't learned his lesson. Where did you find yourself a replacement sword, boy?"

Link stood back up and stared Ghirahim down. Readjusted the sword in his grip, he readied himself to strike. He lunged at Ghirahim and swung at him, but soon felt resistance in its movement. Ghirahim had grasped the blade in his hand, with no sign of injury whatsoever. "Nice try, little swordsman," he crooned. He then gave the sword a once-over look. Almost immediately, his face morphed from a confident smirk to a confused scowl. "Wait a minute...how is it that you have the same–"

 _THUNK!_ A crossbow bolt ricocheted off of Ghirahim's forehead, causing him to briefly let go of Link's sword and grab at the impact spot in surprise. This gave Link enough an opening to slash at him again, knocking him back. "That's right, you back off him right now, ya no-good creeps!" Lori shouted, her crossbow aimed at a point where she could easily hit either Ghirahim or Zant with just a quick turn.

Zelda ran over to Link's side, her own rapier held at the ready. "I wouldn't recommend trying anything you'd regret," she said coolly.

Ghirahim looked over the three poised to strike and grimaced. Even with his newly restored power, the math wasn't in their favor. "We have to go," he said. He grabbed the collar of Zant's robe and began to drag him away.

"But what about dealing with them?" Zant asked. "Surely we can–"

"Another time, Zant," Ghirahim insisted. He snapped his fingers, and within an instant the two of them had disappeared in a flurry of diamond-shaped particles.

"Yeah, you better run," Lori scoffed, lowering her crossbow.

With the threat now gone, Link could feel the tension in his body that he had until then been unaware of loosen instantly. He practically collapsed where he stood, and tears began to stream from his eyes. He let himself sob and cry as he crawled over to Skull Kid's mutilated corpse. Picking up the remains and holding them close, he let out an anguished wail. "How could they..." Link sobbed. "Why... _why did he have to die?!_ "

"I dunno, Linky-boy, it looks like there wasn't really much to come back from there."

Link gasped. The voice was one he was sure he had never heard before, yet it sounded so familiar. More out of wishful thinking than anything, he glanced down at the body of his friend, but it was still as lifeless as it had been seconds before. A warm hand placed itself on his shoulder, giving him a couple of friendly pats. "Hey, you mind cutting the sob-sesh for a bit?" the person behind him said with a laugh. "No use cryin' over some old wood, y'know."

"Oh my..." Zelda said with a tone of reverence. "Is that...?"

Clutching Skull Kid's body tighter, Link turned to look at the newcomer. One glance at the woman that had appeared behind him and he could tell that she was unlike anything he had ever seen. For one, her skin was literally golden and glowing and her bright green eyes were just as luminous. She was at least a head taller than Zelda, who was the tallest of the three of them, and was dressed in nothing but a white robe decorated with flowers. Even if it weren't for her overall otherworldly appearance, her general facial shape, body figure, and pale green hair wrapped in two large buns were reminiscent of someone that both they had all seen before. "Surprised to see me like this, huh?" the goddess Farore asked with a laugh. "Yeah, I get it, seeing your pal seemingly die is traumatic as anything, it's understandable that you're not exactly jumping up for joy at my return just a few minutes after. But hey, I'm back and we're good, right?"

"Hey, goddess lady, why're ya talkin' so familiar with my brother?" Lori asked, an eyebrow raised. "Last I checked, he didn't know any deities."

Farore turned to look at Lori and giggled. "Well, Lori-story, just a few days ago you had no idea he was chummy with the local forest creeper child! But here we are!" She tilted her head and smiled. "By the way, how's Cojiro doing? Still a blue fluffy nerd?"

It was all starting to make sense. Link did know this person, this goddess, and he knew her well. Or rather, he knew what she used to be. " _Skull Kid?_ "

"Good for you, Linky-doodle, that's using your noodle!" Farore clapped. "Yeah, that thing there, what you knew as Skull Kid, was just one of my forms that I've used to hide among mortals. Longest lasting one I've had yet, got a good couple centuries out of it. Shame those ruffians had to ruin it, but better it than you guys."

Zelda stepped forward, bowing somewhat in reverence. "Goddess Farore," she said, "it is an honor to be in your presence."

"Oh, no need for the formalities, miss...erm..." Farore gave Zelda an inquisitive look. "Hang on," she said. "You're one of Hylia's, aren't you?"

"That's what I have been told, but in all honesty I half believed it was just a legend surrounding my family..."

"No wonder you're so insistent on formality!" Farore laughed. "Yeah, Hylia, she was a real stick in the mud before becoming human. Wouldn't even let the sages and my other goddess sisters carry out our plan to get rid of whatever remnants of Demise are still floatin' around–oh yeah, that's the thing that song you got from my girl Saria has to do with–but no, she insisted that getting herself turned mortal and roping some sucker into being her warrior every century or so would be a smarter idea even after the first time." She rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Honestly I thought the Triplicate Sonata sounded pretty good, both as a plan of action and as a full musical piece."

Link tilted his head, confused. Triplicate Sonata?

"Oh, I should probably explain that, shouldn't I?" Farore smiled. "I, my sisters Din and Nayru, and the sages' spirits came together to write a piece of music that would hopefully end an ancient curse that had been placed on the spirit of Hylia's warrior pet, doomed to be reincarnated and fight a shadow of Demise's wrath for eternity. Truth be told, I only got to be present for the writing of two parts, but I have heard it in full when we were trying to make sure it was cohesive enough to not sound gods-awful. Then we split the piece into six sections and now the sages' spirits guard them in out-of-the-way locations across Hyrule and neighboring areas. The only ones I'm really aware of where they're hidden are the one made by my other protege, somewhere up north in the snow climates, and one of Din's, located in Death Mountain."

"So what you're saying is we should go to one of those places to find the next piece of the Sonata," Zelda said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Sure, if that makes you feel better," Farore giggled. "Well, if you're gonna do that, better get going. I've got myself a shell to rebuild." She sighed. "And I really liked that one, too... Maybe it was time for a change anyway."

Link smiled and waved goodbye, and the three turned to leave. However, before they got very far, Farore put a hand on Link's shoulder to stop him. "Before you head out, I want to see that sword you got," she told him. Link seemed apprehensive, but held it out to her regardless. "C'mon, you're acting like I'm gonna break her or something." Farore did not take hold of the sword, but instead tapped it lightly with a finger, sending a ripple of light throughout its blade. "Hope that's enough for ya, sweetheart. Think you've been sleeping a bit too long, even for someone like you."

* * *

"Dis- _gust_ ing," Zant muttered to himself, rubbing the dried crusty blood off his hand. He could hear the sounds of the lake that they were supposedly nearby and was very tempted to just make his way to the water and wash it off properly, however as he had no way of knowing where the shoreline ended and the water began he doubted that would be a good idea. That, and the group of lines in the shape of some sort of person under the surface was probably not someone they wanted to run into in these circumstances.

Meanwhile Ghirahim was pacing and muttering angrily under his breath. "Can't believe it, of all the luck," he hissed. "As soon as I'm back to full strength, suddenly _that sword_ shows up as well..."

"I should have said something," Zant said. "I could see lines on the sword that boy was holding, and judging by that and your subsequent reaction it clearly has some significant power. I suppose I was just surprised by your sudden transformation."

"As anyone should be," Ghirahim said with a light chuckle, presumably keen on pausing his rant to talk about himself. "After all, how can someone not be in awe at one so stunning as I? I am quite the sight to behold, after all!"

"I wouldn't know," Zant grumbled. "I've only seen your sword form, and I only know you've taken on a somewhat humanoid form due to your lines."

"Ah, right." Ghirahim grimaced. "Quite a shame, you really are missing out here."

"Well, if that sun damage ever heals itself or you can somehow magically cure blindness, maybe then I can bask in your supposed glory," Zant said. He began to rub his hand again, gritting his teeth as he did so.

Ghirahim smirked. "That...doesn't actually sound like a bad idea to try," he said. "I managed to save something from that wooden imp, after all." He held out his hand, and with a snap of his fingers one of Skull Kid's severed arms appeared, fluorescent fluid still dripping from the end. "You can sense that, can't you?"

Zant's lip curled in disgust. "Did you _really_ keep that thing's arms?" he groaned. "That's absolutely _vulgar!_ "

"Perhaps, but you never know when even something unpleasant like that may come in handy." Ghirahim took hold of the arm and squeezed some of the fluid into his hand, making a disgusted face as well. "Would you do me a favor and remove that blindfold of yours? I'd like to see your eyes for once."

"I suppose there's no harm." Zant stopped trying to clean off the crusted blood and removed the strip of cloth from around his head. The cool air stung the still-sensitive scarring around his eyes, as well as the eyes themselves. He blinked despite them being near useless. "In all honesty, if you're planning to do what I think you are, I don't believe there's much of a point. My sight wasn't very good to begin with, there's no guarantee that it would even work, and even if it does work the sun is still a thing to deal with in this–"

Before Zant could protest any further, Ghirahim slapped his fluid-covered hand over Zant's eyes, causing him to squeal in both surprise and disgust. "Oh gods, it _SMELLS!_ " he shrieked, his hands instinctively shooting up to his eyes to wipe the offending material away. "It smells and stings, weren't you listening to what I was saying at _all?!_ "

"I was, yes, but there's this little fact that I've only ever let two people tell me what to do." Ghirahim wiped the remaining fluid onto the grass at their feet, making a face as he did so. "Ugh, I only just noticed that smell too. Positively foul."

"This is quite possibly the _worst_ possible thing I've been subjected to in regards to strange fluids in my entire life!" Zant yelled. "I can't believe you would be so inconsiderate as to just–"

Whatever further complaints he had about the impromptu treatment instantly flew out of his mind as soon as he had opened his eyes. The lines were still there as they always were, but he was beginning to pick out extra colors attached to them. Blurry forms at first, then as he continued to blink the remaining fluid away things became clear. Every blink brought more clarity to the world around him until he could see everything with better sharpness than he had ever seen in his life. "I...I can't believe it..." he gasped. "This is..."

"Yes, yes, you can thank me later," Ghirahim chuckled.

"I just...have never seen anything like it," Zant said in awe. "Amazing..."

Ghirahim grinned. "Isn't it?" he asked. "I'll admit, I am quite proud of this form, both functional and aesthetically pleasing."

Zant glared at Ghirahim. "Not _you!_ " he retorted. "Easy on the eyes this whole 'obsidian statue' look you have may be, I wasn't even _looking_ at you when I said that! No, I'm talking about all of _this!_ " He waved his arms in front of him, motioning toward the scenery. "This world! Everything here! The greenery, the lights in a true night sky, reflections of those lights in that water over there, it's absolutely _stunning!_ "

"I suppose the view is nice as well," Ghirahim sighed. "So what's next on our agenda, then? Still set on that goal of 'claiming your birthright'?"

"Perhaps," Zant said. He looked out to the lake, watching the reflection of the stars on its surface. "Though now I'm starting to wonder if I shouldn't set my goals toward something a little bigger."

"Well, while you're figuring that out, I might as well change into something more comfortable." Ghirahim snapped his fingers and was surrounded by a flurry of diamonds. Once they dissipated, the person left behind looked completely different–pale skin, white hair that covered one eye, and a white skin-tight outfit with a red cape and golden sash. "Ah, that's more like it," Ghirahim sighed, looking himself over with satisfaction. "Now then, if you don't mind, I would like to make a suggestion as to our plans going forward."

"Really, now?" Zant raised an eyebrow at this–the tone which Ghirahim was using made it sound like his suggestion would be more of an insistence.

"It's just a little thing," Ghirahim said, "but I would hazard a guess that if you're still set on becoming king of your little locked-away world, it would make sense to seek the aid of someone who already _is_ a king."

"Funny you should mention that, I actually did meet a king shortly after we arrived in this world," Zant said with a nod. "It might be hard to find him as I wouldn't be able to give you a visual description, though even if I could I doubt Ganondorf would be willing to help us regardless."

Ghirahim's eyes widened in surprise. "Did you say...Ganondorf?" he asked.

"Yes," Zant replied, confused. "Why, does that name have significance to you as well?"

"In a manner of speaking. It may not be the same man, but I am familiar with that name well enough." Ghirahim chuckled, a grin spreading across his face. "You'd better get some rest while we're relatively safe. Come morning, we're off to find ourselves a desert king."

* * *

 **AN:** I've been waiting to get to this part for-EVER! Finally get to drop some key information and kick off the second half of the plot. Yeah, if I haven't let you guys know by now either directly or indirectly, this is basically the plot structure of most Zelda games after A Link to the Past. Think of the Triplicate Sonata as finding the sages in that game and Ocarina of Time. Which technically is what's going on in this, 'cept the sages actually have something important besides themselves.

I meant to have this done back in June, but um...my birthday happened, which meant Hyrule Warriors Definitive Edition happened. And then my obsessive working on a badge market guide (which is finished aside from some technically unnecessary math, you can pm me for a link if you want it) happened. While all that was going on, my birthday art giveaway was happening. And then Art Fight happened. ...and to be honest, I have no idea what caused me to piss away most (if not all) of August. Miitopia art series, I guess? And also a brief resurgence of interest in writing for my original series that wasn't quite enough to post just yet, but also redoing all my character refs AND making new character illustrations for them. So yeah, I wasn't exactly putting my priorities on writing fiction for a bit, hehe. But this is the longest chapter thus far (and will likely be the longest one for quite a while), so I'd say that makes up for the unintended hiatus! ...Right?

(and I just realized I kinda explained the plan with the Triplicate Sonata twice between Saria and Farore, but I've been working on this too long to rewrite aaaaa)

—Jess aka PuppyLuver256


	9. Fire Sage and Unwilling Betrayal

" _Fall back, brothers!_ "

All too eager to oblige, the Gorons practically fell over themselves in their haste to follow the order. The beast let loose a mighty roar and gave chase.

" _We cannot let the mines suffer any more damage than they already have! This shaft is nearly about to collapse as it is!_ "

He glared at the beast, a proud fire in his eyes. Gripping the stout war-hammer in his hand, he swung it casually over his shoulder and charged forth. While it would not at all be true to say that he cared not whether he lived or died that day, he would still prefer to give his own life as the price to save his people from the dragon's fury.

" _Come and get some, you fiend! I will be the one to strike you down, as my ancestor before me once did!_ "

A mighty swing of the hammer. A loud crunch of splintering bony horn. An intense bestial cry of pain and anguish. The beast fell at his feet, but not without consequence – its mighty tail slammed into the tunnel's support beam and snapped it like a brittle twig, bring down the stone it had once held up with it.

As rubble surrounded him he couldn't help but smile, content at least that his people had made it out alive.

* * *

The three of them had returned to Fairhill safe yet shaken, and while some questions had been answered, several more had been put into their minds. Either way, they could all agree that they were exhausted, and so made their way to Link and Lori's grandmother's house to rest. If anything, it would give them an opportunity to see how Midna was doing.

Sure enough, as they entered the house, Midna's laughter was what greeted them. "I had no idea a woman of your age would have that sort of sense of humor!" she said between laughs. "Usually the old people I've been around are all fuddy-duddy types."

"Well, I do feel it necessary to keep things clean around the grandkids, but we're both adults and you seem like the type to enjoy that sort of joking." Grandma glanced toward the door with a warm smile. "Speaking of, looks like they're back with your friend," she said. "Hello, kids!"

Midna turned around as well, and upon seeing them she had a look of concern cross her face. "What's got you all so solemn?" she asked. "Things not go well out there?"

"...Not quite," Zelda said. "We ran into your brother."

"I see." Midna stood and made her way to the door. "The cut on my leg was just a surface wound, so I'm good to set out for a family reunion. Any of you got an idea where he went?"

"You aren't seriously thinking of going after that guy _alone?_ " Lori asked, clearly worried. "He seemed like really bad news, and he's got a buddy with him now who's probably way worse."

Midna grinned. "He may have a new friend at his side," she said confidently, "but he doesn't have power like I do." Before she opened the door, she approached Zelda and gave her a quick kiss on the forehead. "I promise you'll see me again." And with that, she was gone, leaving a bright red blushing Zelda to stand flustered at the unexpected affection.

"So, what's the plan of action now?" Lori asked.

"Well, um..." Zelda's face was still flushed from Midna's parting gift, though she was quickly able to compose herself. "Going on what Farore told us, we should seek out the rest of the Triplicate Sonata. I had been meaning to take a diplomatic visit to Goron City and meet with their chief for some time now, and this seems like as good an opportunity as any."

Link nodded in agreement. Even without Zelda's decision, he would've wanted to follow Farore's suggestion himself. After all, he had reason to trust her – he had technically known her most of his life.

"Farore, eh?" Grandma chuckled knowingly. "You must've had quite the adventure in the woods, young ones. To think that my grandchildren would be directly involved with the powers that be."

"I hope you guys don't mind, but I'm gonna keep to defending the home front," Lori said with a laugh. "I mean, you know how I am, Link. If I tag along, I'll probably get lost so often that you'll be spending more time looking for me than looking for that song or whatever."

* * *

Once they had gotten some rest and food, Link and Zelda headed out of Fairhill. Due to the circumstances of Zelda's arrival to the village, she was without a horse of her own, and all of the village's few horses save for one were more used to the plow than the road. So they made do with riding double on Epona. She had been a bit disagreeable with the notion of two simultaneous riders at first, but Link had managed to coax her into accepting the extra weight.

As they rode, Zelda noticed something odd standing out in the middle of the field. "Link, can we go check that out?" she asked. He nodded and directed Epona to head toward the object. The closer they got to it, the more they came to realize that it was some sort of camp with a distinctly non-Hylian-styled tent. A large black horse was hitched to the post that had been set into the ground beside the tent, grazing peacefully while his rider presumably slept within. "That tent looks like something the Gerudo would make," Zelda said, seemingly worried. "And that horse...isn't that Mas'ud?"

Sure enough, the horse did look very similar to the one that Ganondorf rode, and the fact that he did not seem to spook as they drew closer lent more credence to that idea. Cautiously, Link dismounted Epona and made his way to the tent's door to peek inside. He lifted a flap and saw the figure of a large man sleeping. The man's back was to Link so he couldn't see his face, but that bright red hair on his head all but confirmed what they had believed. Link crawled into the tent and gently nudged the man's shoulder, and as he stirred he rolled over and opened his tired eyes.

Ganondorf gave a shout and reached for one of his swords. Link responded with a shout of his own, shuffling backwards and holding his hands out in surrender, while Ganondorf paused in his half-asleep reaction and took a closer look at his supposed assailant. "Link...?" he asked groggily. "Is that...is that really you?" Link nodded, smiling nervously, and Ganondorf dropped the sword and instead gave Link a hug. "I'm sorry, I wouldn't have reacted like that had I known," he said. "I've been on-edge for a bit lately."

"What's going on in there?" Zelda's voice asked from outside the tent, and soon enough she too poked her head inside. "Ganondorf! What are you doing here?"

"Zelda..." Ganondorf let go of Link and moved toward her. "I've been looking for you... I tried to get into Castle Town, but there were countless suspicious people crawling the streets in search of you as well. I'm so glad you're..." He winced, bringing his arms close to his chest. "Dammit, they must be getting worse..."

"You're hurt, aren't you?" Zelda asked. She bent down and made her way inside the tent, which was already cramped with two people in it, let alone three. Link was thankful he wasn't terribly claustrophobic, and that the people he was sharing this small space with were both people he knew well.

Ganondorf nodded, groaning from the pain. "My arms," he explained through clenched teeth. "My caretakers from childhood cut open my arms for some weird ritual, and I doubt it's just the blood loss that's caused me to feel off since then."

"Let me take a look," Zelda said. "I may not be a fully trained doctor, but if what I remember of what you said about your caretakers correctly, it may be closer to something I would have more knowledge of."

"Of course," Ganondorf said. "That's why I was looking for you in the first place."

Zelda took Ganondorf's right arm in her hand and gently peeled the bandages back, revealing one of the large wounds underneath. Immediately small drops of blood began to seep out, thankfully not nearly enough to suggest the wound had been dangerously re-opened, but enough for Ganondorf to take in a sharp breath from the sudden pain. What bothered all of them more was that the area around the wound had become slightly green, and while it didn't seem that it had become infected, there was no real way to discern that with what they had on hand. Of course, any alternate explanation would only raise further questions. "I think I can handle this," Zelda said. "You're all right with me trying magic healing, right? I haven't gotten much of chance for any practical application, but I have practiced quite a bit."

"Anything's better than letting it go untreated," Ganondorf said. "Just be quick about it if you can."

Zelda held her hand over Ganondorf's wound, a soft glow forming in her palm and slowly shrinking the wound's open space. "So what happened with the Amulet of Power?" she asked. "We saw that...someone else had it, someone who clearly shouldn't have."

"You had the misfortune of running into Zant as well, I take it," Ganondorf said. The wound now reduced to a mere scar, albeit a large one, he moved the left arm over to have the process repeated. "I'd won the amulet in a fair combat trial, and then that creep just snatched it from me and poofed away. Lucky that _that_ wound wasn't nearly as deep as these."

"Do you want me to take care of that as well?" Zelda asked.

"Nah, Urbosa patched me up after that," Ganondorf said. "It wasn't too terrible, my pride was more wounded in that instance than my body."

"Well, at any rate, I am glad you're safe." Zelda took her hand away from Ganondorf's second arm would, her work complete, and smiled. "After all, it would be a shame to lose a friend like you."

Link put a hand on Ganondorf's back with a smile of his own, as if to confirm Zelda's statement. Ganondorf couldn't help but laugh. "I'm so glad to have run into you guys. You have no idea how much of a relief it is."

* * *

"So you're going around to important points in Hyrule for pieces of some kind of song?" Ganondorf asked as the three of them made their way up Death Mountain. They had to take the long way around the mountain as it would be all too easy for her to be recognized if they took the path through Kakariko Village, and they had no way of knowing whether or not Yiga clan members were covertly hiding among the rest of the villagers waiting for this exact sort of slip-up.

"The Triplicate Sonata, yes," Zelda explained. "We were told that the Gorons had a section of the composition, so we'd intended to ask their chief for help."

"And what's the song supposed to do, anyway?"

Zelda thought for a bit. "We weren't told the specifics," she admitted. "Only that it would help banish some dark force."

The path soon came to a point where it would be unsafe for the horses to continue with them, so they left Epona and Mas'ud tied to a post and walked the rest of the way. Eventually they had arrived at the entrance to Goron City, where two Gorons stood guard outside armed with large hammers. "Oh! Humans!" the left Goron guard exclaimed upon seeing the three approach. He nudged his fellow guard and directed his attention toward them, not in an aggressive sort of way but more as though he saw them as an interesting curiosity. "What brings humans up here on a day like this?"

"Greetings, gentlemen," Zelda said politely. "My name is Zelda, soon to be queen of Hyrule. My friends and I have come to speak with your chief on a matter that effects all areas surrounding my kingdom, that is if he so permits."

"Doesn't sound like too big of an ask, we haven't had anything serious going on lately that would require Darnym's immediate attention," the right Goron guard said. "So who are your friends?"

"Hey, I'm Ganondorf, king of the Gerudo," Ganondorf said, holding out a hand to shake. Both the guards accepted his offer in turn, though he winced as they both had gripped his hand a bit tighter than he was expecting. "And this guy here's Link, son of Fairhill Village's finest blacksmith." Link smiled, not wanting to bother clarifying that his father was Fairhill's only blacksmith.

"Oh yeah, Fergus of Fairhill, I've heard of him," the left Goron guard said. "He's no Biggoron, but he's pretty skilled."

"Well then, if that's all you need, we'll take you right to Darnym personally," the right Goron guard said with an amicable smile. "Just be careful and watch your step. It's the season for our lava pools to be active, and while that's just fine for us Gorons, it's much too dangerous for a human making an unfortunate misstep."

The Goron guards opened the large metal gates to the city and led the trio inside. The air inside the caverns was sweltering, most likely due to the convection of heat from the aforementioned lava pools that several Goron citizens were relaxing in. Link regretted that he was the only one that was wearing long sleeves, and as they made their way to the chief's room he could feel the sweat on his back making his shirt stick to his skin. He could only hope that some sort of relief would come soon.

Upon entering a large chamber that had many large banners featuring the Gorons' emblem along the walls, they approached an older Goron with long hair-like rock formations running down his head, wearing a large necklace adorned with polished black stones. "Welcome, human guests!" the Goron said in a booming, enthusiastic voice. "I am Darnym, chief of the Gorons. What can I do for the three of you?"

Zelda stepped forward, taking charge once again. "Chief Darnym, I would like to humbly request your assistance in locating a part of an ancient musical piece," she said. "We have reason to believe that a section of this music has been entrusted to the Sage of Fire, who was likely one of your people in the far past. You wouldn't happen to know anything about this, would you?"

"The Sage of Fire?" Chief Darnym thought for a bit. "That would have been Darunia, my ancestor. The only place I could think of that would have anything related to what you are looking for would be in the Fire Temple, but..." He shook his head. "I cannot let humans such as yourselves go into the Fire Temple. Just look at you! You are woefully unprepared to go so deep into the mountain, you would surely roast alive."

"But if we can't even take a look–" Ganondorf began to say, but was interrupted by Darnym holding up a hand.

"I said you are unprepared," Darnym restated. "I did not say I would not help the three of you to become prepared. If you are dead set on making your way to the Fire Temple, I can give you some essential supplies and provide you with a guide who would know the mines very well."

"That would be much appreciated, thank you," Zelda said with a light bow.

Darnym laughed. "No need to be so formal, brother!" he exclaimed. "If what you say is true, it would be ridiculous to refuse you aid."

"B-brother?"

"Of course! The royal family of Hyrule and my lineage have gotten on real swell over the generations, so of course you and your friends are honorary Goron brothers." Darnym then realized just what Zelda was questioning. "Wait, you're one of the humans that use the other word, aren't you? I keep forgetting that's a thing." He smiled sheepishly and chuckled. "Anyway, I'll get you set to go soon enough, and I'll try to remember what the other word for 'brother' is in the meantime."

"It's 'sister', Chief Darnym."

"Ah, yes, that's it. Thank you, sister!" Darnym gave Zelda a hearty pat on the back, but accidentally knocked her off-balance. "Whoops, sorry about that." Ganondorf and Link exchanged looks of shock, and both hoped that they wouldn't end up being on the receiving end of Darnym underestimating his strength as well.

* * *

Soon enough, Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf were led to the entrance of a tunnel, where their guide was waiting for them. This Goron had long fibrous rocks resembling hair that was tied into a ponytail and wore a belt over his shoulder that was used to hold a mattock. In his hands he held three bottles of charcoal-colored liquid, which he offered to the three of them. "You guys are gonna wanna drink this before we go in there," he said with a friendly smile. "It's fireproof elixir, specially made for non-Gorons sensitivities. I'll warn ya that it smells awful and probably tastes worse, but it'll keep the heat in the mines from burning ya."

Zelda accepted one of the bottles cautiously. "Thank you very much, um..."

"Name's Blairmor," the Goron said, handing Link and Ganondorf their elixir doses. "I'm gonna be your tunnel guide. I know those mines like the back of my hand, so you'll be good with me."

"I'm sure you'll forgive us for being a little wary of this little concoction," Ganondorf said, an eyebrow raised. He removed the cork from the bottle and took a whiff, immediately reeling away from the fumes. "Smells like death."

Link opened his elixir dose and sniffed it as well, and immediately wished he hadn't. The smell coming off the liquid within the bottle reminded him of when he and Lori were children and had decided to try cooking for the first time, but they had thrown just about anything they could find into their grandmother's cooking pot and the resulting sludge hung around in both its solid form and the ever-present stench for months, to the point where if the kitchen walls became damaged even years after the smell would briefly return to haunt them. He knew he didn't want to think about that anymore, so to go ahead and get it over with he pinched his nose and downed the whole thing in one gulp. It definitely did taste way worse than it smelled, but the effect was instant and he could feel his body cooling as though a brisk breeze had somehow worked its way into the inner mountain. He coughed a bit, the horrid taste still in his mouth, but nonetheless he gave his friends a thumbs-up and a smile. Following his example, they both downed their elixirs as quickly as possible.

"Well then, if you three are ready, let's get going," Blairmor said. He led them into the tunnels, and even through the effects of the elixir Link could almost feel a heat sensation as they passed by exposed lava streams. "So yeah, these are the Goron Mines," Blairmor told them, beaming with pride. "The Fire Temple used to be the only thing this deep in the tunnels, then we started carvin' 'em out for resources. Obviously we kept the important parts intact, and we always pay our respects to those who came before us."

"So how far in is this thing?" Ganondorf asked.

"Shouldn't be too far, if I remember correctly," Blairmor said as they took a left at a forking path. "I'll be honest, last time I was in here wasn't exactly for temple purposes, so while I remember the _way_ I don't have a good estimate of the travel time. I mostly work on the other end with the magnetic ore, you get a lot more precious stones through this route than workable ore veins and, well, let's just say I have a track record for snacking on the job." He scratched his head and laughed in a slightly embarrassed manner, though no one else seemed to get it. Seeing this lack of reaction, he shrugged and kept the group moving.

As they continued through the tunnels, the lava streams became more frequent, turning into large pools that those with less stony skin had to be careful to avoid. They followed Blairmor through the winding tunnels when he abruptly stopped. "What is the matter?" Zelda asked. "Have you forgotten the way?"

"I'm feeling somethin'," Blairmor said, a worried look on his face. "Kinda feels like a–" He gasped, his eyes widening. "Everyone get out of the way!"

It happened as if in slow motion. Cracks began to form in the ceiling, quickly spreading out and turning into separate stones that fell to the ground. Blairmor shielded Link with his bulk and Ganondorf had managed to grab Zelda and get out of the way before the ceiling crashed down on top of them. "That was much too close..." Zelda said breathlessly. She pried herself from Ganondorf's grip and approached the new wall cutting them off from further progress. "Did you see what happened to the others?" she asked. "From what I could see it looked as though..." She couldn't bring herself to say what she believed had happened, but her face told all that her words could not.

"I don't know, I was..." Ganondorf shook his head, approaching the wall as well. "Hey! Link! Blairmor!" he shouted as loud as he could, his voice reverberating in the tunnel and causing Zelda to flinch. "Are you guys all right?!"

No response. Ganondorf and Zelda looked at one another with equally worried expressions, fearing the worst, when a muffled voice made its way through the wall. "We're okay!" Blairmor shouted back. "I'm going to see if we can find another way around to get to you, just sit tight!"

"Just be careful!" Zelda called out. There was no more response. "I hope nothing else happens on their end..."

"They'll be fine," Ganondorf said. "Gorons are as tough as the mountain they live in, and Blairmor seems like he was looking out for us."

Zelda nodded. "That does appear to be the case." She examined the wall once again, and sighed. "Well, we might as well get to somewhere that's perhaps more open than this," she said. "I would just feel safer."

The two made their way further along in the tunnel, not sure where they should go but moreso wandering than anything. As they continued onward, Ganondorf began to feel an odd sensation all over his body. Was it the elixir wearing off? Some sort of weird itch? Either way, it was really starting to get to him. "Hey, uh, Zelda," he asked, "are you starting to feel the heat again?"

"No, I'm not," Zelda said. "Why, do you think that's happening to you?"

"Just checking." He could tell now that it wasn't his heat sensation returning. It was something deeper, something scratching at the back of his mind and twitching at the ends of his muscles. He reached out a hand with the intent to gently place it on Zelda's shoulder as a sort of reassurance to them both, but instead his hand acted on its own and gripped her arm tightly. Too tightly to be seen as anything but aggression. "Zelda..."

"What's wrong?" Zelda asked, trying to sound calm but with an obvious panic rising in her voice. "Ganondorf, please let go, you're hurting me!"

With a sharp yell, Ganondorf managed to regain control of his arm and loosen his grip on her. Immediately that feeling in the back of his mind began to protest, demanding that he exact the revenge he had sought all this time. Revenge? What had Zelda ever done to him to warrant such feelings? What hadn't she done? What had those witches done? "Zelda, please," Ganondorf said, unable to stop himself as he reached for his swords. "Please, get away from me for your sake. Run as far and as fast as you can."

"I don't understand," Zelda said. "Tell me what's going on!"

"Just...RUN!"

Ganondorf's eyes seemed to roll back into his skull briefly before returning focus, an odd glare present in them as his mouth formed a sinister smirk. He advanced on Zelda, a dark laughter resonating from him as an equally dark aura seemed to radiate from him, and in the cramped tunnel Zelda could see no other course of action than to obey what her friend had demanded before whatever had taken him over had made its presence known.

* * *

"We'd better be careful from here on out, brother," Blairmor said as he and Link made their way through the tunnels. "I had no idea the structure in this section of the mine was so unstable."

Link was looking around the walls and ceiling, trying to look out for any signs of another cave-in. He tried to swallow to alleviate the dryness in his throat, also tried to reason with himself that it was the heat starting to get to him again and that his friends were most definitely fine and not being trapped under more collapsing stone.

Blairmor frowned, putting a hand on Link's shoulder. "I get that you're worried about them," he said. "We'll get to them, though. I promise we will, even if I have to dig out a new tunnel myself." He grimaced at the idea. "Let's just hope it doesn't come to that. I'd hate to compromise the tunnel structure any further than it apparently has been already..."

As they continued through the tunnel, Link began to notice an odd sound on the other side of the rock. He stopped and put his ear to the wall. "What is–" Blairmor started to ask, but Link motioned for him to be quiet. He closed his eyes, straining to figure out what that sound really was...

Screaming?

Link's eyes shot open and he let out a gasp – yes, that was definitely screaming and shouting. He turned to Blairmor, the unease of his awful speculation clear on his face. "Outta the way, Link," Blairmor said, grabbing his mattock from his back and holding it out like a weapon. "Looks like we got no other choice." Link did as he was told and quickly moved away from the wall.

Soon Blairmor took a hefty swing, bringing the mattock down onto the wall with a loud _CRACK!_ Again and again he swung, the stone booming in time with his own strained grunts. It was a surprisingly fast carving, but it wasn't fast enough. Link looked around, desperate for anything he could use to help speed up the process–it wasn't like he was going to try tunneling with his sword, after all. His eyes fixated on something that looked rather out of place: a large crate containing several bulbous blue flowers, or perhaps fruits, with a red center and an odd fraying stem that gave the objects the appearance of explosives. Without thinking, he grabbed a few of the plants and ran back to the wall, pulled the stem out of one, and hurled it.

 _ **BOOM!**_

Several layers of shattered stone fell to the ground, the echoing explosion followed by both he and Blairmor coughing from the smoke and dust. "Watch it with those!" Blairmor groaned, waving a hand in front of his face to clear the way for cleaner air. Sure enough, when the dust had settled, a new tunnel was opened before them. "I mean, I guess it worked," he admitted sheepishly, "but next time you're gonna handle bomb flowers, maybe give everyone around you advance notice please?"

Link shrugged, and they both made their way into the tunnel. The sight before them was shocking, at least to Link–unless something else in the tunnels was messing with his mind, Ganondorf was attacking Zelda! He seemed to be doing his best to slash Zelda with his swords, while Zelda refused to fight back, instead dodging swipes or using her own rapier to guard against his blows. "Stand still, girl!" Ganondorf shouted, in a voice that seemed almost as uncharacteristic as his current actions.

"Get control of yourself!" Zelda cried. "This isn't like you!" She held her rapier over her head to block another strike, yelping as the blades clashed.

Even with the fight between his friends, Link couldn't just stand by and watch. He rushed in, blade in hand, and stood between Zelda and Ganondorf, blocking more blows with his shield. "The boy..." Ganondorf muttered to himself, glaring at Link as he stared back with a look of betrayal. His moment of distraction turned quickly back into rage as his attention turned from Zelda to Link. "Not this time, you little pest!" he shouted, slashing at Link repeatedly.

Despite the constant attacking, Link couldn't bring himself to fight back. This was his friend, his brother in arms! "You refuse to attack?" Ganondorf sneered. "Your counterparts always hold onto their precious courage, and yet now you act the coward. Taking you out now will be–"

A large fist suddenly connected with the side of Ganondorf's head. He collapsed to the ground in a heap, leaving Link and Zelda confused. Blairmor sighed, massaging his knuckles after his hit. "That was a close one," he said. "Are you really sure this guy's your friend, with him treating you like that?"

"This isn't how he normally acts," Zelda said. She made her way over to the unconscious Ganondorf, concern clear on her face. "I don't know what happened just now, but I do know one thing: whatever was acting through his body, it was _not_ Ganondorf." Something caught her eye on his arms – in the area where his wounds had been, the odd green discoloration had expanded. It had previously only been around the scar on each forearm, but now both areas had spread out a good inch or so. "What in the world..."

"Hey, uh, you guys mind if I restrain him?" Blairmor asked. Zelda and Link both gave him an odd look. 'Y'know, just in case he wakes up and he's still...murdery."

Zelda sighed. "I suppose that may be a necessary precaution."

With a nod, Blairmor removed the belt that had been used to hold his mattock on his back. He then wrapped it around Ganondorf with as snug a fit as he could manage, pinning his arms to his sides, and when he was confident it would hold him he buckled the belt. He then picked up the unconscious Gerudo and carried him on his shoulder. "Wouldn't be right to leave him here alone," he said. "C'mon, then, let's get going. The Fire Temple's not going to be too far from here."

As they made their way deeper into the tunnels, Link couldn't help but wonder what exactly had made Ganondorf act so unlike himself. He also couldn't help but notice that something was nagging at the back of his mind, a thought that he knew couldn't have been of his own doing, as its wording was completely alien to his thought process.

 _The threat is currently subdued. Attempting to eliminate it in this circumstance would have a 95% success rate. It would be wise to take this course of action._

"What?!" His sudden outburst startled both Zelda and Blairmor, the latter moreso because he had no idea Link was even capable of speech. He looked around, trying to find the source of the sound even though he knew where it had come from.

"Is everything all right, Link?" Zelda asked.

Link nodded. He didn't want Zelda to worry. He especially wasn't going to listen to whatever voice had wormed its way into his brain, not if his interpretation of what it was telling him to do was correct.

 _If that is the course of action you wish to take, that is acceptable. I shall be your guide, but in the end you are the one in control._

It was about that time that Ganondorf began to stir. He groaned a bit as he slowly opened his eyes, presumably still in a great deal of pain from the hard impact to his head. "What happened..." he asked groggily. His eyes then shot open as he realized what was going on. "Zelda!" he shouted, trying to wriggle free from Blairmor's arm. "Is Zelda okay? Where is she?!"

"Seems you've come to your senses," Zelda said, letting out a sigh.

As soon as he heard her voice, Ganondorf stopped squirming and instead tried to crane his head over to look at her. "Are you all right after...whatever happened while I was out?" he asked, clearly not wanting to even theorize on what he might've done. "I didn't hurt you, did I?"

"I have no physical wounds, no," Zelda replied abruptly. "I would rather talk about that incident later."

"I...see." Ganondorf hung his head in shame. "Look, whatever happened just now, I'm so sorry, I had no control or even awareness of my actions after telling you to–"

" _Later_ , Ganondorf."

Suddenly the tunnel walls began to shake. A low booming sound could be heard coming from a good distance away, through a shaft that they hadn't been in. "Another tunnel collapse?" Ganondorf asked, his body tensing and his legs instinctively lifting up as though he intended to make a move.

"No, the vibrations are different," Blairmor said, taking hold of his mattock in his free hand. "Think we've got an uninvited guest comin' in. Link, Zelda, get ready for a fight."

"What about me?" Ganondorf asked. He didn't get a response. Link and Zelda had their swords drawn as the booms grew louder and closer, along with a scratching sound and a noise that sounded like air being repeatedly pushed through a narrow tube. Soon enough they saw the source of the sounds: a gigantic reptile covered in gold and brown scales thundered its way in, its roars echoing through the tunnels as loud as its stomps had been. Jagged ruby spikes jutted out of its spine, its shoulders bore large emerald lumps, and one silver and two ruby horns grew out from its forehead.

"Okay, forget what I said about fighting!" Blairmor shouted, turning to run. "You can barely fight a regular Dodongo without bombs, much less the king!"

Blairmor fled down the opposite tunnel, with Link and Zelda close behind and the thunderous commotion from the King Dodongo signaling it wasn't too far off in its pursuit. "Where are we going?!" Zelda shrieked.

"Back into the tunnel me and Link were in!" Blairmor shouted. "It's less room, but we can get some bomb flowers back there and stand a chance against that monster!"

They ran as fast as they could, and soon enough they came across the crate that Link had found the bombs in. Link skidded to a stop and approached it, reaching inside to find only two left. He grabbed them anyway – two bombs were better than none, after all. "Will that be sufficient?" Zelda asked.

"If we use 'em wisely, they will," Blairmor said. "But unless we can get a clear shot into the beast's mouth with at least one of 'em, they're not gonna be much use."

"I think I have an idea," Ganondorf said. "You're gonna have to drop and unbelt me first."

Blairmor gritted his teeth, nervous. "I don't know about–" His train of thought was interrupted by the sounds of King Dodongo's pursuit. "On second thought, we don't really have time for second thoughts!" He put Ganondorf down and removed his belt, freeing his arm movement. "All right, what's the plan?" he asked.

Ganondorf grinned. "Just wait." The rumbling echo from King Dodongo's movements grew louder as the beast presumably drew closer. A flash of gold and red came into view around the corner and Ganondorf ran toward it, swords drawn. "Hey, you ugly beast!" he shouted. "You wanna mess with any of us, why don't you try taking on a fellow king!"

King Dodongo let out a mighty roar, swiping at Ganondorf with its massive claws. But Ganondorf was quicker than his somewhat bulky frame would make him seem, and he dodged out of the way just in time to suffer no damage aside from some slashes in his cloak. He responded with a yell of his own, presumably to try and establish dominance against the beast, though it seemed to have little success. He slashed at King Dodongo's impenetrable hide with his swords, doing nothing more than irritating it. Zelda's eyes widened as she realized what he was doing. "He's not actually trying to fight the Dodongo," she said. "He's trying to distract it!"

"Well, he certainly didn't _look_ like the type of guy to provoke a Dodongo without thinking it through at least somewhat," Blairmor said.

Link held out one of the bomb flowers quizzically. "No, not yet!" Blairmor insisted. "Gotta wait for the perfect opening or you'll do more damage to your friend than that thing!" Sighing, he pulled the inactive bomb back towards him with a hint of disappointment.

"C'mon, you ugly brute," Ganondorf said with a snarl. "You know you wanna open up!" He charged at King Dodongo once more, leaping out of the way as the beast had decided to charge at him as well. They turned to face each other once more, and King Dodongo opened its mouth wide, taking in a deep breath as a flame within its belly began to become visible.

"NOW!"

Pulling the stem and setting it ablaze, Link gave one of the bomb flowers a hearty toss toward King Dodongo. It inhaled the bomb just before it went off, and once it did smoke billowed forth from its nostrils as it let out a roar and keeled over. He ran over to King Dodongo to finish it off, but Ganondorf was closer – he leapt onto the beast and delivered the killing blow with an angry yell. The beast let out one final cry, then fell silent. A silence hung over the group as well as Zelda and Blairmor approached cautiously. "Wow," Blairmor gasped. "I'd heard tales about how to pull it off, but I've never actually seen anyone take out a King Dodongo before! That was amazing!"

"You're sure it's dead, right?" Zelda asked. "It's not going to get up and try to attack us in an injured frenzy, is it?"

"Looks plenty dead to me," Ganondorf observed. He gave the beast a quick once-over to confirm his analysis, then nodded in a sort of agreement with himself. "Shame to have to take out such an imposing creature," he said in a solemn tone as he retrieved his swords. "But you do what you have to do sometimes, even if it isn't pretty."

"You, uh...you guys wouldn't find it too weird if I grab one of the back crystals, would you?" Blairmor asked sheepishly. "I've heard they're either super-valuable, a delicacy, or both. I'll be sure to pass on the Rupees to you guys if it pays out, promise!" None of them said anything, just giving him an odd look, so he shrugged and took that as the go-ahead. He made his way over to the creature's body and used the sharp end of his mattock to carefully pry off one of the crystalline clusters along its spine, grimacing as a bit of organic matter presumably came off with it. "That shouldn't be too hard to clean off..."

With the beast felled, the four continued on to their destination; the remnant of the Fire Temple. All that seemed to be left of it was a few walls around what looked like a prayer room of sorts, a symbol resembling a flame drawn on the ground. As they approached the center of the room, torches surrounding that bit of decor began to light on their own, a warmth and sense of welcoming radiating from their glowing blaze. A red light formed directly in the middle, growing larger and larger until it was roughly the same size as Blairmor, then taking on the appearance of a Goron. It was like looking at Darnym in his prime years, with his "hair" taking the appearance of large spike-like clumps around his head and the Goron emblem tattooed on each of his muscular biceps. "Greetings, wielder of the Master Sword and companions!" the Sage of Fire announced in a booming voice. "And to my young Goron brother as well!"

"No way..." Blairmor gasped, dropping the Dodongo crystal he had brought with him in surprise. "You...you're really Darunia! Hero of the Gorons! I'm not just imagining things, right?"

Darunia beamed. "You've got that right, for the most part," he said. "It's good to see that my people have thrived after all these years, and it seems you've kept up the alliances with the humans as well! So, what can I do for those allied with the Blade?"

"We have come seeking your portion of the Triplicate Sonata, good Sage," Zelda explained. "The Sage of the Forest has already imparted her portion with us, and the goddess Farore has explained the plan that this musical piece would help to accomplish."

"Ah, that old thing?" Darunia smiled. "That will be no trouble at all. Just give me a few seconds..." He held out his hands and a set of drums manifested in front of him. He then proceeded to play a short tune on the drums, one that seemed to continue from Saria's piece perfectly. "All right, there you go," Darunia said. "Now if I remember correctly, the portion that the Sage of Water was meant to be the next part, so if you think that would make it easier to keep in your mind then you should probably go there for your next part."

"Thank you very much," Zelda said with a short bow. "We will take your advice." And with that, Darunia's form dissipated.

Ganondorf shook his head and shrugged. "Well, I can't carry a tune in a bucket, so I hope you guys know how to do this music thing."

"There's no need to worry on that matter," Zelda said. "I have plenty of musical training to carry this tune in the metaphorical sense." Link nodded in agreement, having fooled around with some instruments himself in the past.

"At least that part's taken care of," Ganondorf said.

"I still can't believe I got to meet a legend like Darunia..." Blairmor said, still in awe. After allowing himself to bask in the moment for a little while longer, he picked up the crystal and said to the others, "We'd better make our way out, then. There's probably not that much time left with your heat resistance, so we gotta get you back into the open air before you start cooking."

* * *

 **AN:** Goron tiiiiime! And we're getting to see a taste of just what happened with Ganondorf back in the Spirit Temple with his witchy grandmas. Yes, it does involve his namesake. Also I'm pretty sure this is the first chapter where Zant hasn't appeared at all since his introduction, that's a surprise considering he's my fave villain. Maybe next time. Or maybe I'll give some more spotlight to Ghirahim, who knows? Not me, I haven't plotted that far yet.

Fun fact, the Goron chief's name, Darnym, literally came from me being unable to come up with a good name for a Goron chief and just writing it in my notes as "Dar-name". Then I remembered that the "nym" part of words like synonym and pseudonym came from a word meaning "name" and it would sound fitting so I went with that. My laziness in figuring something out earlier on helped out later in an unexpected way yet again! In a less lazy move, I couldn't decide whether to use the OoT design of King Dodongo or the Hyrule Warriors design, so a friend I asked for input suggested I combine the two, and that's exactly what I did. Wonder if anyone'd be willing to draw that combo, that'd be cool. Not me just yet, though, I don't currently know where I'll be at in my art queue by the time this goes up but hooooo boy that thing is looooong and it's looking highly unlikely that it'll be more opened up by then.

—Jess aka PuppyLuver256


End file.
